Twenty-four prisoners have been freed as we speak in a world prisoner swap between Russia and Western international locations. Among the many eight Russians repatriated have been a number of convicted cybercriminals. In return, Russia has reportedly launched 16 prisoners, together with Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
AMong these within the prisoner swap is Roman Seleznev, 40, who was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in jail for racketeering convictions tied to a prolonged profession in stealing and promoting fee card information. Seleznev earned this then-record sentence by working among the underground’s most bustling marketplaces for stolen card information.
Roman Seleznev, pictured with bundles of money. Picture: US DOJ.
As soon as identified by the hacker handles “Track2,” “Bulba” and “nCux,” Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a outstanding member of the Russian parliament who is taken into account an ally of Vladimir Putin. U.S. prosecutors confirmed that for years Seleznev stayed a step forward of the legislation by tapping into contacts on the Russian FSB, the successor company to the Soviet KGB, and by periodically altering hacker handles.
However in 2014 Seleznev was captured by U.S. Secret Service brokers, who had zeroed in on Seleznev’s posh trip spot in The Maldives. On the time, the South Asian island nation was a preferred vacation spot for Japanese Europe-based cybercriminals, who seen it as past the attain of U.S. legislation enforcement.
Along with receiving a document jail sentence, Seleznev was ordered to pay greater than $50 million in restitution to his victims. That loss quantity equaled the full losses inflicted by Seleznev’s varied carding shops, and different thefts attributed to members of the hacking discussion board carder[.]su, a bustling cybercrime group of which Seleznev was a number one organizer.
Additionally launched within the prisoner swap was Vladislav Klyushin, a 42-year-old Muscovite sentenced in September 2023 to 9 years in jail for what U.S. prosecutors known as a “$93 million hack-to-trade conspiracy.” Klyushin and his crew hacked into corporations and used info stolen in these intrusions to make unlawful inventory trades.
Klyushin likewise was arrested whereas vacationing overseas: The Related Press reported that Klyushin was captured in Switzerland after arriving on a non-public jet, and simply earlier than he and his occasion have been about to board a helicopter to whisk them to a close-by ski resort.
A passport photograph of Klyushin. Picture: USDOJ.
Klyushin is the proprietor of M-13, a Russian expertise firm that contracts with the Russian authorities. Based on prosecutors, M-13 supplied penetration testing and “superior persistent risk (APT) emulation.” As a part of his responsible plea, Klyushin was additionally ordered to forfeit $34 million, and to pay restitution in an quantity that was to be decided.
The U.S. authorities says 4 of Klyushin’s alleged co-conspirators stay at massive, together with Ivan Ermakov, who was amongst 12 Russians charged in 2018 with hacking into key Democratic Celebration e mail accounts.
Among the many People freed by Russia have been Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, who has spent the final 16 months in a Russian jail on spying costs. Additionally launched was Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, a Russian American editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested final yr; and Paul Whelan, 54, a former U.S. Marine arrested in 2018 and accused of spying.
The New York Occasions reviews a number of others freed by Russia have been German nationals, together with German Moyzhes, a lawyer who was serving to Russians acquire residence permits in Germany and different E.U. international locations. The Occasions says Slovenia, Norway and Poland launched 4 folks accused of being Russian spies.
Reuters reviews that Germany launched Vadim Krasikov, an FSB colonel serving a life sentence there for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.
Replace, 8:47 p.m. ET:An earlier model of this story incorrectly reported that one of many Russian hackers launched was the BTC-e co-founder Alexander Vinnik. KrebsOnSecurity was unable to verify his launch. The above story has been edited to mirror that change.