Mandurah man charged over role in alleged sophisticated cybercrime syndicate

A Mandurah man is one of two alleged criminal masterminds accused of being behind a highly sophisticated global cybercrime syndicate.

Louis Michael Gaebler, 23, and 21-year-old Ruben Ian Thomson are facing serious charges following a four-month joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police, WA Police and the FBI.

Gaebler and Thomson were allegedly part of a highly organised syndicate involved in large-scale cybercrime offending, including data intrusion, identity crime, and cryptocurrency-based money laundering.

The men allegedly created malicious open-source software to rob thousands of global businesses.

"Parallel investigations started in April, 2026, after the AFP and FBI received information from multiple cyber threat assessment companies regarding a syndicate that allegedly inserted malicious code into software available on an open-source repository, which was then unwittingly used by other developers," an AFP spokesperson said.

"Police will allege infected software was then distributed into computer systems at other organisations across government, academia and the private sector. The software allegedly enabled the syndicate to infiltrate those organisations to steal or harvest sensitive data, including user credentials and authentication materials.

"It is estimated the malicious code potentially compromised more than 1000 organisations globally, enabling the theft of more than 500,000 credentials, and the exfiltration of at least 300 gigabytes of data.

"The alleged compromise of a small number of trusted software components had a significant global impact. To date, the financial impact includes global remediation costs estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars."

Gaebler and Thomson were arrested on Wednesday night following raids at three properties in Mandurah, Cottesloe and Hamilton Hill.

Authorities seized electronic items that are currently being forensically examined.

Both men appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday, August 27.

They were remanded in custody and will appear in court against on September 18.

FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said the arrests demonstrated the FBI’s global reach and strength of its international partnerships.

“These men are allegedly members of the cybercriminal group TeamPCP, whose malicious code potentially compromised more than a thousand organisations worldwide,” Assistant Director Leatherman said.

“We are proud to work with the Australian Federal Police and the Western Australia Police Force to impose cost on criminal actors and combat the growing threat of software supply-chain attacks.”

Authorities have not ruled out further arrests and charges.

Mandurah man Louis Michael Gaebler is accused of being part of a highly sophisticated cybercrime syndicate. PIC: AFP