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Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, a 50-year-old Venezuelan national accused of developing the Ploutus ATM malware, appeared in federal court in Nebraska on October 2 and pleaded not guilty to four counts, the Justice Department said.
Known as "Prometheus" and "The Engineer," Canelon Aguirre appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson and is being held in the District of Nebraska pending trial. A federal grand jury in that district indicted him in December 2025. BleepingComputer reported that he led jackpotting operations targeting 47 states, Washington, D.C., and foreign countries.
The charges are conspiracy to commit bank fraud, carrying up to 30 years, and conspiracy to commit bank burglary and fraud in connection with computers, up to five years. He also faces conspiracy to commit money laundering, up to 20 years, and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, up to 15 years. The Record put the combined maximum at 70 years.
Between February 2024 and December 2025, the operation carried out 117 attacks that took about $5.4 million. BleepingComputer, citing the Justice Department, breaks that into 63 bank ATM jackpottings and 54 attacks on credit unions, plus $1,429,738 in attempted thefts. Prosecutors say the proceeds were laundered and sent to accounts controlled by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The Justice Department said Ploutus contained anti-analysis protections meant to block reverse engineering and debugging, along with a self-deletion function to conceal deployment on the machine.
The FBI added Canelon Aguirre to its Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list in March 2026, making him the first cybercriminal on it. FBI Director Kash Patel said he is now "back in the United States to face justice."
Officials have tracked about 1,500 ATM jackpotting attacks with total losses of $40.7 million, according to The Record, which reported that 120 people have been charged in the wider scheme.
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