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Russian hacker gets 27-year sentence for payment card data theft

April 25, 2017

It is notoriously difficult to extradite Russian hackers to face trial in the U.S. It was the misfortune of one Roman Seleznev, 32,  of Vladivostok, Russia, to be a rare exception to the rule.

Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was tried and convicted in Federal District Court in Seattle. Last Friday, a judge in that court handed Seleznev a 27-year prison sentence for his role in a massive credit card theft scheme that netted data from 2 million cards and ultimately defrauded banks at least $170 million. Court documents indicate that the final amount could run to $1 billion or more, according to a New York Times report.

In court documents, prosecutors described the Russian as " ... a market maker whose automated vending sites and tutorials helped grow the market for stolen card data," according to an L.A. Times report. They also called the prosecution as "unprecedented," saying that, "Never before has a criminal engaged in computer fraud of this magnitude been identified, captured, and convicted by an American jury.”

Secret Service agents were able to arrest Seleznev in the Maldives as he arrived for a vacation in 2014. The country does not have an extradition agreement with the U.S. but was willing to work with U.S. authorities to facilitate the arrest.

Seleznev's father, Valery Seleznev has accused the U.S. of kidnapping his son; FBI Director James B. Comey has said that tactics such as those used to capture Seleznev are completely legal, according to the L.A. Times report.