During his appearance in U.S. District Court in Camden, Drinkman admitted taking part in the scheme from 2005-2012.
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A Russian man has pleaded guilty for his role in a massive computer hacking scheme of US and European companies that USA authorities said resulted in the theft of millions of credit card numbers and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman says the case is the largest computer hacking scheme ever prosecuted anywhere in the world. He quietly told the judge he didn’t need an interpreter to help him answer questions because he’d had a lot of practice with English the last few years, which he spent in a federal detention center in Newark awaiting trial. Officers say the buying and selling platform was not affected.
“This hacking ring’s widespread attacks on American companies caused serious harm and more than $300m in losses to people and businesses in the United States “, said Caldwell.
Drinkman and four other defendants were charged in a superseding indictment in July 2013.
Drinkman and Alexandr Kalinin, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia, specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate systems, prosecutors said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, the five defendants penetrated the computer networks of several of the corporate victims and stole user names and passwords, means of identification, credit and debit card numbers and other corresponding personal identification information of cardholders. Discounts were given to bulk and repeat customers. Ultimately, the end users encoded each dump onto the magnetic strip of a blank plastic card and cashed out the value of the dump by withdrawing money from ATMs or making purchases with the cards. Other members of the team provided anonymous web-hosting services and sold the pilfered data on the black market.
Three of his alleged co-conspirators remain fugitives.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry specifically cited the case of Drinkman in a warning to Russian citizens, saying they could be detained or arrested by US law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
Despite being in US custody, Smilyanets has managed to set up an online webpage that takes bitcoin donations for what he says is a defense fund for his legal expenses. Nine other criminal charges were dismissed.
Vladimir Drinkman faces as much as 35 years in federal jail plus tens of millions in fines and restitution when he is sentenced January 15.
The hacker, who originally pleaded not guilty to the charge, was first arrested in Amsterdam in 2012 and subsequently extradicted to the US. Gonzalez is serving a 20-year federal prison term.
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Smilianets was extradited months later and is in United States custody.
