A Russian lawmaker’s son, who has a reputation as an international master hacker, was arraigned in federal court on charges he and a team of others stole millions of dollars after breaking into the computers of an Atlanta-based credit card processing center.
Roman Seleznev, whose father is a member of Russia's parliament, is charged in a 44-count indictment in federal court in Atlanta with numerous computer crimes as well as conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud. The criminal charges stem from November 2008, when federal authorities say Seleznev and others — mostly from Eastern European countries — used "cashers" in 280 cities worldwide to withdrew more than $9 million in just 12 hours. The 32-year-old Seleznev collected almost $2.2 million of that, according to court records.
John Horn, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, said Seleznev and his cohorts are responsible for what was in 2008 “the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted.”
Seleznev, of Vladivostok, Russia, was arraigned before a federal magistrate in Atlanta on Thursday on charges associated with the hack and the theft of banking credentials from Royal Bank of Scotland’s WorldPay, an Atlanta-based company which some employers use to process payroll debit cards.
According to charges, Seleznev, whose handle was Track2, and other hackers on the team compromised the WorldPay encryption and raised the account limits on cards, some of them in excess of $1 million. A “casher” then used counterfeit payroll debit cards Seleznev and others had provided to make withdrawals from 2,100 ATMs in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada, according to charges.
Federal authorities said “cashers” kept 30 percent to half of what they withdrew and the rest went to Seleznev and other members of his team.
The hackers monitored the computer system as withdrawls were made. They attempted to cover up their activity by trying to destroy data stored on the card processing network once millions of dollars were withdrawn.
Seleznev and 13 others were charged in Atlanta, Horn said. They were from Russia, Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine and Nigeria. One was an American national and another holds citizenship in three countries, Russia, Israel and Ukraine. Several were arrested outside the United States.
Some of them, including another key member of the operation, Sergei Tsurikov of Estonia, have already pleaded guilty.
In October 2014, a federal judge in Atlanta sentenced Tsurikov to 11 years and three months in prison and ordered him to repay $8.4 million.
While Tsurikov and others were in custody and their cases were moving through the criminal justice system, Seleznev stayed in Russia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. But in July 2015 he took a family vacation to an Indian Ocean resort. Local authorities arrested Seleznev at the airport in Maldives before he could board a plane home. Federal agents whisked him away to the U.S. territory of Guam, to be held until he could be returned to Seattle to face federal charges there. Russian officials bitterly complained that the United States had kidnapped Seleznev.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Nevada have charged him with conspiracy, racketeering and possessing 15 or more counterfeit and unauthorized access devices; that case is pending.
Authorities said the arrest showed the reach of American justice.
“We must continue to impose real costs on criminals who believe they are protected by geographic boundaries and can prey on the American people and institutions with impunity, said David LeValley, the special agent in charge of the Atlanta FBI field office.
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