Overview
- Prosecutors say an unknown hacker altered a vendor's email payment details in June 2023, prompting a $5.3 million wire to accounts controlled by Ronald Deabler.
- Deabler, a 66-year-old former certified public accountant, agreed to move the funds for a fee, opened a second bank account, and converted about $3.5 million into four cashier's checks that he mailed to recipients chosen by the hacker.
- Federal investigators and the banks traced transfers after the hospital and vendor detected the fraud within days, and they recovered roughly $4 million from Deabler's accounts and related accounts.
- A federal jury convicted Deabler earlier this year and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered $682,860 in restitution.
- The case highlights the threat of business email compromise to healthcare providers and leaves open key questions about who received some mailed cashier's checks and the identity of the original hacker.