Three Bulgarians living in the outer boroughs of New York will be staying behind bars for years after a US court sentenced them for a large-scale ATM fraud scheme.

The three Bulgarians defrauded Valley National Bancorp (VLY) customers in New Jersey of USD 278 144, The Wall Street Journal informs.  They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and aggravated identity theft

The three Bulgarian natives secretly inserted "skimming" devices and pinhole cameras at ATMs, which allowed them to glean account and identification numbers at two Valley National Bank branches in Nutley and Belleville, N.J.

The three men then loaded the information onto blank ATM cards that were then used at bank machines around the U.S.

Lachezar Lazarov, 26, of Queens received the largest sentence -  more than 5 years in prison. Fellow Queens resident Georgi Nikiforov, 25, was sentenced to more than four years, while Viktor Kafalov, 28, of Brooklyn was sentenced to more than two years

Lazarov was additionally sentenced  to five years of supervised release, while Nikiforov and Kafalov each received three years of supervised release.

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