Overview
- The $5.3 million theft began in early June 2023 when a hacker accessed a furniture vendor’s email, changed bank details, and induced Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to wire the payment into an account controlled by an intermediary.
- Prosecutors say Ronald Deabler, a 66-year-old Atlanta business owner and former CPA, agreed to move and distribute the funds for a commission and opened a second account to shift money after the initial deposit.
- Deabler converted about $3.5 million of the proceeds into four cashier’s checks that he mailed to people and groups chosen by the hacker, and a federal jury convicted him of laundering conspiracy on February 12, 2026.
- A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Deabler to four years in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered $682,860 in restitution, while prosecutors and banks recovered approximately $4 million of the stolen funds.
- The case highlights how business-email-compromise schemes exploit vendor payment workflows, and it is likely to spur tighter vendor controls and faster interbank tracing in prosecutions led by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.