Russian carder Roman Seleznev, the son of a deputy, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the US
Roman Seleznev with Anna and her daughter. Photo: AFP
American justice rarely manages to reach out to Russian hackers and carders, who constantly hack in the US and withdraw billions of dollars from the US banking system. But when it succeeds and if the guilt is proven - the guys get the maximum time.
On Friday, April 21, 2017, the Federal District Court in Seattle sentenced 27 years to imprisonment of Roman Valerievich Seleznev, a 32-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation, son of Valery Seleznev , an acting deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the LDPR party.
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The novel is known in underground forums under the nicknames of Bulba, Track2, 2pac, nCuX, and others. He himself sold dumps through the sites of POS Dumps, track2.tv, bulba.cc, 2ras.ss - at the last millions of dumps were taken, taken from the terminals of Target stores, Neiman Marcus, Michaels, Staples and Home Depot, in 2013-2014 it was the largest dump store on the Internet.
Roman Seleznyov was declared wanted by Interpol with a “red notice”. He was detained at the airport of the resort town of Malé in the Maldives by agents of the American special services on charges of computer fraud, hacking, hacking bank accounts and stealing credit card dumps and damaging citizens and organizations of the United States in the amount of about $ 2 million. After that, he was sent to the United States.
The federal court of the Western District in Seattle charged Roman with hacking into a system of retail outlets throughout the US in 2009-2011. According to the prosecution, from his houses and apartments in Vladivostok, in Indonesia and Bali, he managed the sites of international card forums to facilitate the theft and sale of stolen credit card data. On the laptop Selezneva found 1.7 million dumps, and on bank accounts - more than $ 18 million dollars received as a result of illegal operations. These funds, in particular, were purchased two apartments in Bali, totaling $ 800 thousand.
On the computer, we also found pictures of Roman at the wheel of various sports cars, as well as next to bundles of bills, similar to 5,000 rubles.
According to proven episodes, Seleznev’s schemes allowed to resell more than two million credit cards, which resulted in losses for the US banking system in the amount of more than $ 170 million. If you take into account the overall work of the Romanian carder forums, the total damage could amount to billions of dollars. Among the victims are 3,700 financial organizations and 500 companies worldwide, mostly in the United States. For this reason, federal prosecutors call Seleznev "the largest fish" from the Carder world, which has ever fallen into the hands of American justice.
In a handwritten letter for the court, Roman told about the problems of his difficult childhood in Vladivostok, about his alcoholic mother and how at the age of 17 he barely had enough money for food and utility bills. These difficulties and forced to make "the biggest mistake in his life," as Roman writes, that is, forced to do carding. He stole credit cards and other data that can be resold. Over time, he improved his hacking abilities and increased volumes. Then it became even more serious. He became rich, married Svetlana and moved to Bali. In general, the typical history of the Russian carder. The tragedy happened after the terrorist attack in Marrakesh in 2011 , where Roman was blown away part of his head, he fell into a coma for a long time, his wife left him and with all the money and daughter left for the USA. After leaving the coma, Roman returned to Carding, met the Ukrainian woman Anna, whom he loved, and she still fights for him with American justice.
Hacker's common-law wife Anna Otisko and father of State Duma Deputy Valery Seleznev after the press conference. Photo: ITAR-TASS
The US Secret Service has been tracking down Roman Seleznyov for more than ten years, judging by court documents. The search ended with a successful arrest in the Maldives in June 2014.
It is curious that the Maldives do not have an extradition agreement with the United States, so Roman felt safe there and acquired real estate. However, Interpol and the US Department of Justice through the State Department managed to negotiate with the law enforcement agencies of the Maldives to help with the detention of the Russian. For this, a special plan was developed, in accordance with which the hacker was detained at the airport just before boarding the plane flying to Russia.
The agents took Roman under surveillance immediately after he arrived at Male. During his journey from the airport to the airport, he was already under heavy surveillance: several agents sat with him on the bus, a couple of rows behind him. As soon as Roman handed over his passport at the control at the airport, he was immediately handcuffed.
Local authorities simultaneously announced the expulsion of Roman from the country. Instead of the plane to their homeland, the American intelligence services put the Russians in a private plane that took him to prison on the American island of Guam, and from there they were transferred to the United States.
Deputy Seleznyov subsequently offered $ 50,000 for videotaping the detention of his son and expressed the opinion that economic sanctions should be imposed against the Maldives.
In August 2016, the jury found Seleznev’s proven guilt on 38 episodes of the criminal case. Of these, ten relate to cyber fraud and nine to unauthorized access to computer networks. The prosecutor asked for Roman 30 years in prison, and on April 21, 2017, the judge issued such a verdict given that Roman had already served three years.
Informative commentary SBKarr
For those who are 27 years old
The lord is charged with 40 episodes of criminal activity (felony), 38 of them are related to hacking. In US law, episodes are grouped, after which each group is either summarized or absorbed the most. The largest group is presented as punishment. In addition, there are crimes that are not grouped and are certainly summed up by the final date.
In the judgment, the episodes are grouped as follows (I will try to translate in a manner that roughly corresponds to our legal terminology:
As a result, we take the maximum term - 336 months. They are added 24 months for points 39 and 40 (giving knowingly false testimony). We get 360 months, or 30 years.
Paragraphs 11 and 20, apparently, relate to the organization of criminal activity, and the jury decided that they were not proven.
Now about some interesting things.
In addition to this system, the United States has developed a special assessment table, which allows formalizing the aggravating parameters, and increasing the term in proportion to the severity. For Seleznev, the table takes into account, for example, such points:
According to this table, the prosecution should have recommended a life sentence, but the use of such “modifiers” is permissible only in certain cases, for example, if the case falls under the RICO Act. And to prove RICO is quite expensive, and not at all a fact. that the organization of Seleznyov fits it. Therefore, “modifiers” were not used.
All the more surprising is the fact that these calculations are in prison because, according to American laws, they are irrelevant to the case and should have been removed and excluded from the testimony for the jury. In my personal opinion, this is evidence of unskilled legal assistance provided to a citizen of the Russian Federation, for such calculations clearly set up a jury against the defendant.
In the verdict you can see the strangeness, in the description of the groups of episodes, it says:
That is, the punishment for episodes should be served together with other episodes, and together with other groups of episodes. If you think about it, this means that for 1 episode Wire Froud give 28 (!) Years. This incident is a historical feature of the United States. Fraud with the use of federal communications (mail, communications operators) and financial (banks) institutions is a particularly serious crime in the United States.
The proposed prosecution scheme is interesting, according to which the accusation against Seleznev was prepared in several states at once, and the episodes were distributed among all. At least two states were preparing to file charges on the aforementioned RICO Act, demanding life imprisonment. The interesting thing is this: in any legal country no one can be convicted of the same crime twice, but in the USA a person can be convicted of the same crime several times in different states, if the charges do not coincide completely in the episodes. That is, it is worth replacing one episode with one for which the accusation was not advanced - and the new process in another state is ready. In the case of Seleznyov, there are a lot of episodes.
In the judgment, the episodes are grouped as follows (I will try to translate in a manner that roughly corresponds to our legal terminology:
- 1-10 - Wire Fraud Fraud - 336 months
- 12-19 - Intentionally causing damage to electronic computing devices that perform important operational functions (Intentional Damage to a Protected Computer) in conjunction with
- 21-29 - Obtaining Information from a Protected Computer - 60 months
- 30-38 - Access Device Fraud - 120 months
As a result, we take the maximum term - 336 months. They are added 24 months for points 39 and 40 (giving knowingly false testimony). We get 360 months, or 30 years.
Paragraphs 11 and 20, apparently, relate to the organization of criminal activity, and the jury decided that they were not proven.
Now about some interesting things.
In addition to this system, the United States has developed a special assessment table, which allows formalizing the aggravating parameters, and increasing the term in proportion to the severity. For Seleznev, the table takes into account, for example, such points:
- Loss in excess of $ 550 million - total financial losses exceed 550 million
10 or more victims - more than 10 victims - Scheme committed from outside the US - offense committed from outside the US
- Organizer / leader - the defendant is the leader of a criminal organization
- Obstruction of justice - the defendant impeded the administration of justice
According to this table, the prosecution should have recommended a life sentence, but the use of such “modifiers” is permissible only in certain cases, for example, if the case falls under the RICO Act. And to prove RICO is quite expensive, and not at all a fact. that the organization of Seleznyov fits it. Therefore, “modifiers” were not used.
All the more surprising is the fact that these calculations are in prison because, according to American laws, they are irrelevant to the case and should have been removed and excluded from the testimony for the jury. In my personal opinion, this is evidence of unskilled legal assistance provided to a citizen of the Russian Federation, for such calculations clearly set up a jury against the defendant.
In the verdict you can see the strangeness, in the description of the groups of episodes, it says:
for each of the counts 1-10 (Wire Fraud), can be billed 39 and 40
That is, the punishment for episodes should be served together with other episodes, and together with other groups of episodes. If you think about it, this means that for 1 episode Wire Froud give 28 (!) Years. This incident is a historical feature of the United States. Fraud with the use of federal communications (mail, communications operators) and financial (banks) institutions is a particularly serious crime in the United States.
The proposed prosecution scheme is interesting, according to which the accusation against Seleznev was prepared in several states at once, and the episodes were distributed among all. At least two states were preparing to file charges on the aforementioned RICO Act, demanding life imprisonment. The interesting thing is this: in any legal country no one can be convicted of the same crime twice, but in the USA a person can be convicted of the same crime several times in different states, if the charges do not coincide completely in the episodes. That is, it is worth replacing one episode with one for which the accusation was not advanced - and the new process in another state is ready. In the case of Seleznyov, there are a lot of episodes.
Sentencing memorandum
“Today I am alive and I thank God for this for the government of the United States of America,” writes Roman. “I was on a very deadly road until I was arrested.”
Roman Seleznev is also accused by prosecutors of Nevada and Georgia. It is not yet known whether the sentence in Washington state will satisfy the prosecutors of these states, the NY Times writes .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/370401/
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