14 DAY TRIAL // 26-year-old Slovenian Matjaz Škorjancu, known on the hacking scene as Iserdo, has appeared in a Maribor District Court, being accused of developing the software behind the Mariposa botnet. The suspect’s former girlfriend, Nusa Čoh, also stands trial, facing money laundering accusations.
Back in 2010, when authorities from Slovenia, Spain and the US arrested the suspected operators and developers of Mariposa (butterfly in Spanish), they estimated that as many as 12 million computers might have been part of the botnet.
Now, according to Slovenske Novice, Matjaz Škorjancu is accused of creating the program and selling it to 233 individuals. Court documents reveal that the damage caused by the botnet is around 3.3 million EUR ($3.7 million).
The money he made after selling the malicious code, around 115,000 EUR ($142,000), was placed in the bank account of Nusa Čoh, who was his girlfriend at the time.
The 26-year-old doctor claims that she doesn’t have any involvement in her former boyfriend’s crimes. She stated that back in 2007, when they met, he told her that he was a computer programmer and allegedly asked her to deposit the money in her account for tax benefits.
She is accused of assisting Škorjancu in laundering the money he earned.
The defense claims that the suspect has nothing to do with the malicious software. In the upcoming hearings, the prosecution will present all 6,000 pages of evidence it has against Škorjancu.
The United States have requested the man to be extradited, but so far Slovenian authorities haven’t agreed to do so.
It doesn’t happen too often to see a botnet developer behind bars, so it will be interesting to see if authorities can come up with enough evidence against Škorjancu to get him convicted.