Russian man gets longest-ever US hacking sentence, 27 years in prison

[HAPPY2BME]

Roman Seleznev bankrupted businesses, did $170 million in damage.

Joe Mullin - Apr 22, 2017 12:19 am UTC


Images of Seleznev with stacks of cash were found on his laptop following his 2014 arrest in the Maldives.

Russian hacker Roman Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison today. He was convicted of causing more than $169 million in damage by hacking into point-of-sale computers.

Seleznev, aka "Track2," would hack into computers belonging to both small businesses and large financial institutions, according to prosecutors. He was arrested in the Maldives in 2014 with a laptop that had more than 1.7 million credit card numbers. After an August 2016 trial, Seleznev was convicted on 38 counts, including wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft.

Seleznev was tried in Seattle, which was the location of several of the businesses he was said to have hacked. Those businesses included the Broadway Grill, which said the hack was one of the reasons it closed in 2013.

The Seleznev arrest and trial garnered international attention, in no small part because the 32-year-old hacker is the son of Valery Seleznev, a member of the Russian Parliament and ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Valery Seleznev has accused the US of "kidnapping" his son.

Seleznev wrote a handwritten 11-page letter to federal court, published today by The New York Times. In it, he describes a difficult upbringing in Vladivostok, including witnessing his mother's death from alcohol poisoning when he was 17. In 2011, he was injured in a terrorist bombing in Morocco. The bombing took him more than a year to recover from and led to his wife divorcing him.

"Please understand I was a desperate child who grew into a desperate man," he wrote. "I want to repay for my wrongdoing and make things as right as humanly possible."

The Times reports Seleznev's sentence is the longest sentence for hacking charges ever handed down in the US.


https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/russian-man-gets-longest-ever-us-hacking-sentence-27-years-in-prison/

[HAPPY2BME]

 "This is a man with extraordinary computer abilities and cunning business acumen who has chosen to return to cybercrime again and again, each time increasing the scope of his criminal enterprise and the magnitude of its damage," prosecutors wrote in a memo, asking for a 30-year sentence.

"Once released, Seleznev will return to Russia, where he will once again be beyond the reach of American law enforcement."

The judge shaved a few years off the prosecution's request to give Seleznev the exact sentence recommended in a probation report. Litvak said his client felt 15 years would have been more just.

"He will die in an American jail," he said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-hacker-roman-selezny-gets-27-years-u-s-cyberattacks-n749531