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Former Diebold technician arrested for allegedly stealing $180,000 from ATMs

May 24, 2011

A former Diebold Inc. service technician is cooling his heels in a California jail after police arrested him for allegedly stealing $180,000 from seven Bank of America Corp. ATMs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Samuel Kioskli, 62, has been charged with grand theft, commercial burglary, burglary and embezzlement after stealing funds from one Bank of America ATM in Daly City, Calif., said Joe Bocci, senior detective of the Daly City Police Department. Kioskli also faces similar charges for stealing funds from six Bank of America ATMs in San Francisco, Bocci said.

Kioskli, who has pled not guilty to the charges, is being held in the San Mateo, Calif., county jail, on a $25,000 bond from Daly City and a $350,000 bond from San Francisco, Bocci said.

Phoenix, Ariz., police arrested Kioskli earlier this month on warrants from both Daly City and San Francisco, charging him for allegedly stealing money from the ATMs on July 4, 2010.  

Kioskli opened the ATMs and took out the cash. He replaced the cash, which is stored in cassettes, with either blank banknote-size paper strips or "badly printed counterfeit" banknotes, Bocci said. Surveillance cameras filmed him removing the money.

Diebold, which is based in North Canton, Ohio, has a contract to service Bank of America ATMs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bank officials discovered the thefts after the holiday when the ATMs dispensed blank paper or nothing at all.

When the thefts were completed, Kioskli fled to Arizona. The U.S. Secret Service, which also was involved in the investigation, did not recover any of the funds Kioskli is presumed to have stolen. Bocci praised Diebold for cooperating with the investigation.

The manufacturer, the world's third largest based on annual shipments, learned from a similar incident three years ago in Russia, said Michael Jacobsen, a Diebold spokesperson.

"We have bolstered our security and security infrastructure. We have come a long way," Jacobsen said.

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