14 DAY TRIAL // US authorities are preparing to start the jury trial of Roman Seleznev, a Russian hacker, son of Valery Seleznev, who is a member of the Russian Duma (Parliament) representing the Liber Democratic Party.
Seleznev is one of the most famous Russian hackers to date, and his arrest has caused an international scandal, with Russian state officials calling his apprehension by US authorities a kidnapping.
The US Secret Service arrested Seleznev in an airport in the Maldives, out of their jurisdiction, while Seleznev was exchanging flights when traveling home to Russia.
The US agents then transported Seleznev to Guam, a US territory, where he was charged and later transferred to Seattle.
Seleznev has a prodigious hacking career
Seleznev faces a 40-count indictment for all sorts of hacking offenses. 29 of those 40 charges are related to the famous WorldPay hack from 2008, when a huge criminal group that included Seleznev hacked RBS WorldPay servers and then carried out a massive ATM heist, stealing over $9 million from 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities, in less than 12 hours.
This was Seleznev's biggest hack, but according to US authorities, he had been active on hacking and carding forums since 2002, where he sold credit card data obtained by hacking various payment systems of US businesses.
Authorities say that, between 2002 and 2009, Seleznev used the nCuX nickname (psycho in Russian) to sell credit card data online.
Seleznev may have had protection from Russian authorities
After US officials had approached Russian law enforcement about a possible link between nCuX and Seleznev's real identity, the nCuX user immediately announced he was going out of business and ceased all activity on the hacking forums he was active.
Seleznev then registered a new account with the Track2 nickname and continued to sell credit card data online. In 2013, he switched his username again to the nickname 2Pac.
According to the Times of Malta, US officials claim that Seleznev's hacks and carding activity pocketed him over $170 million.
Seleznev hacked over 200 US businesses
In the US, Seleznev compromised over 200 payment systems belonging mostly to pizza restaurants, where he installed PoS malware and stole credit card information.
Authorities managed to gather the information they needed when they identified Seleznev's Yahoo account used for his Track2 persona. This account linked Track2 to Seleznev's real identity and the previous nickname nCuX.
When authorities arrested Seleznev in the Maldives, they said they found over 2.1 million stolen credit card numbers on his laptop.
If found guilty on all accounts, Seleznev faces at least 65 years in prison and a total fine of $2,75 million / €2 million; bank fraud alone is punishable by up to 30 years and a $2 / €1.47 million fine.