14 DAY TRIAL // Another hacker will be tried in Russia for his alleged role in the $9-million RBS WorldPay cyber heist, leaving open the possibility that he is the defendant referred to as 'Hacker 3' in an indictment filed in US.
Citing local media, Threat Post reports that a criminal case will be heard against one Eugene Anikin in Zaeltsovskiy District Court in Novosibirsk.
Investigators have reason to believe that Anikin acted as an intermediary between Viktor Pleshchuk, one of the masterminds behind the operation, and card cloners.
Anikin is said to have forwarded credit card information stolen from RBS WorldPay to cybercriminals, who created the fake cards that were later used to steal around $9 million.
The 2008 RBS WorldPay cyberfraud operation is considered one of the most sophisticated and well organized incidents of this kind in history.
During a twelve-hour interval money from RBS accounts with artificially inflated limits were withdrawn at 2,100 ATMs located in 280 different cities around the world.
In November 2009, a grand jury in Atlanta indicted Sergei Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia, Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia, Oleg Covelin, 28, of Chisinau, Moldova, and an unidentified individual referred only as "Hacker 3," for instrumenting the operation.
Four other residents of Tallin, Estonia, named Igor Grudijev, Ronald Tsoi, Evelin Tsoi, and Mihhail Jevgenov, were also indicted for their role as money mules.
Pleshchuk received a suspended sentence of six years in jail last week after agreeing to provide information about his associates to the Russian authorities. The new charges against Eugene Anikin suggest that he might be "Hacker 3".
Sergei Tsurikov was the only suspect extradited so far to US in order to face the pending charges, since he is not a Russian citizen and is not protected by the country's no-extradition policy.
Oleg Covelin of Moldova is also wanted in a separate case of identity theft and wire fraud, but he remains at large.