4 men from Quebec charged in scheme involving ATM machines

The U.S. Attorney General's office in Vermont said Thursday four men from Quebec have been charged in a scheme involving using stolen account information from Canadians at ATM machines.

Court records say the men traveled from Quebec to Burlington between March and October where they used NBT Bank ATM machines in Essex and Burlington to get cash advances on cards. They appeared in court Tuesday.

Court papers identified them as Mathieu Baaklini; Safwan Bensalma; Brandon Lo; and Nicolau Manfredi.

Court papers say among ATM transaction records, NBT Bank incurred approximately $54,000 in suspected fraud activity in August the form of 500 suspected cash advances on Canadian and European credit and debit cards.

Last week, federal agents executed a search warrant on a storage unit in Williston, Vermont, where they recovered approximately $33,000, a card-reading device, and 378 gift cards with markings indicating they contained account information.

Lawyers for Baaklini and Manfredi did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Bensalma's lawyer, Craig Nolan, said he would contest the charges. Chandler Matson, Lo's lawyer, said, "I look forward to working with the government and the court to bring about a fair, just result."