14 DAY TRIAL // Oleg Nikolaenko, the 23-year-old Russian arrested by U.S. authorities under accusations of running the infamous Mega-D spam botnet, pleaded not guilty in a Wisconsin federal court yesterday.
The FBI identified Nikolaenko while investigating a major spam network known as Herbal King, which at the time of its shutdown, in October 2009, was the largest spam operation in the world.
While questioning Lance Thomas Atkinson, the New Zealander running it, investigators learned that his biggest affiliate was a Russian spammer as “Docent.”
After subpoenaing Google and ePassporte for Docent’s email and financial records, the FBI were able to tie his accounts to Oleg Nikolaenko.
They then realized that Nikolaenko had visited the United States on two occasions in the summer and autumn of 2009 and found out that during his last trip he attended the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas.
On October 30, he returned to attend this year’s edition, but this time the FBI was waiting and picked him up at the Bellagio Hotel.
The botnet allegedly used by Nikolaenko to send spam for Herbal King is called Mega-D and according to security researchers, at its peak in 2009, it was responsible for a third of the daily spam traffic in the world.
Mega-D was severely crippled by security firm FireEye in October 2009 and is now only a shadow of its former self. It used to be comprised of over 500,000 infected computers capable of sending out as much as 10 billion spam emails a day.
According to the BBC, Nikolaenko, who has remained in custody since his capture, asked the judge for house arrest for the period of the trial. He was refused because he is considered a flight risk.
"He is a citizen and resident of Russia and the government believes, if released, he would seek to return there and the government wouldn't be able to prosecute him," argued prosecutor Erica O’Neil.
The extradition of Russian citizens is banned through the country’s constitution. Nikolaenko has a wife and a young son back home.