Israelis in JPMorgan hack case to be extradited

 Israeli authorities have approved the extradition to the United States of two nationals indicted over a cyber attack against JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest computer frauds in history.

Gery Shalon, 32, and 41-year-old Ziv Orenstein were arrested in Israel last July and will be extradited following a US request, the justice ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

They risk lengthy prison sentences if convicted, it said, adding that both suspects had consented to the extradition.

It did not say when this would take place.

Shalon and Orenstein were among four people indicted in a massive hacking scheme by a "diversified criminal conglomerate" that compromised data from millions of customers of JPMorgan Chase and other firms, US officials said in November.

The bank revealed in 2014 that a hack had compromised data on 76 million household customers and seven million businesses, including their names, email addresses and telephone numbers -- the largest theft of data from a US financial institution.

The two Israelis and US citizen Joshua Samuel Aaron were charged with multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy and other charges related to the hack.

Around the same time Shalon and Orenstein were arrested in Israel, US officials detained Anthony Murgio, who was charged with operating an illegal money transfer service using the bitcoin virtual currency that helped launder the profits from the scheme.

Aaron, who is known to have ties to Russia, remains at large, according to officials in the United States.

The indictments include some 30 criminal charges carrying penalties of between five and 20 years each.