With the trial now set to begin, the prosecution has gathered a number of witnesses from affected USA businesses – of which a large number were pizza firms.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Wilkinson said Monday that investigations by U.S. Secret Service agents made the connection between hacks into the computers of Washington state restaurants and stolen credit card numbers that were then sold on special websites.
The US Secret Service arrested Seleznev in an airport in the Maldives, out of their jurisdiction, while Seleznev was exchanging flights when traveling home to Russian Federation.
The hacking scheme is alleged to have been carried out between 2008 and 2014, ending with the arrest of Mr Seleznev in July of that year.
His father, Valery Seleznev, is a member of the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, from flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s party.
Steve Bussing, owner of Red Pepper Pizza in Duvall, northeast of Seattle, told The Associated Press on Friday that he and his wife had to spend about $10,000 installing a new computer system after they learned theirs was compromised by a hacker. According to a report on Sputnik News, which is closely linked to the Russian state, Seleznev’s lawyers are planning to argue the usa prosecution has failed to adequately connect Seleznev with the computer hacks.
AP stated that federal prosecutors had branded Roman Seleznev a “leader in the marketplace for stolen credit card numbers”. Seleznev is now facing a 40-count indictment after 11 new offences were added that included wire and bank fraud, hacking and identity theft.
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Lawyers have argued that Mr Seleznev Jr’s arrest was a “kidnapping” or an “illegal rendition” that violated worldwide law, but a US District judge has blocked that argument from the trial. In 2013 he switched his username again to the nickname 2Pac. They traced Track2’s Yahoo email accounts, which were also linked to nCuX, the documents said. A previous lawyer said he was in a coma for two weeks.
