A federal jury convicted the son of a Russian lawmaker Thursday of hacking into US businesses to steal credit card information and orchestrating an worldwide online theft scheme that netted him millions of dollars.
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While Seleznev faces almost 40 years in prison, he will probably be sentenced to eight to 12 years, according to the Seattle Times, though he still facing similar charges in Nevada and Georgia.
Prosecutors said that from October 2009 to October 2013, Seleznev hacked into retail point-of-sale systems and installed malware to steal credit card numbers from businesses, including restaurants and pizza parlors in Washington state.
Seleznev was arrested in 2014 after USA authorities accused him of installing malicious software on point-of-sale systems in us restaurants.
According to the DOJ, once the credit card information was obtained, it went to other servers Seleznev controlled in Russia, Ukraine or McLean, Virg. The thefts resulted in nearly $170 million in credit card losses around the world, Barbosa said.
Lawyer John Henry Browne talks with reporters in Seattle, Wash, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, after his Russian client, Roman Seleznev, was convicted in U.S. District Court of hacking into U.S. businesses.
Russian Roman Seleznev has been found guilty in the USA of running a hacking scheme that stole $169m (£131m). He was also convicted on charges of possession of 15 or more unauthorized devices and two counts of identity theft.
Seleznev is also facing racketeering and fraud charges in Nevada and Georgia, according to the Justice Department. The agents flew him by private jet to Guam and then to Seattle, where he has been in federal custody.
The elder Seleznev insisted in an interview that his son was innocent and had only average computer skills after he was disabled in an April 2011 terrorist bombing in Morocco.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said Wednesday that Roman Seleznev was a prolific hacker.
The defense’s only witness testified that the machine may have been tampered with, and the attorneys said any evidence from it was suspect.
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A number of Washington businesses were caught up in Seleznev’s point-of-sale attacks. At the time of his arrest in the Maldives, he was found carrying 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers on his laptop. The laptop he was carrying at the time reportedly contained 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers.
