14 DAY TRIAL // 49-year-old Ukrainian national Roman Vega has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit access device fraud.
The man, also known as “Boa,” “Roman Stepanenko” and “Randy Riolta,” is the co-founder of the notorious cybercrime marketplace CarderPlanet.
Vega entered the world of cybercrime in 1990 when he founded the Boa Factory, one of the first websites that sold stolen payment card information. In the early 2000s, he co-founded CarderPlanet, a website which had over 6,000 members.
The cybercriminal was arrested in February 2003 in Cyprus. He was later extradited to the US where he was indicted on federal charges in 2007. In 2009, he pleaded guilty.
When authorities arrested him, they found over half a million stolen credit card numbers in his possession.
Bloomberg noted that Vega’s attorney had asked the judge to sentence him to time served, since he had already spent a lot of time in prison and since the prosecution had failed to present any evidence regarding the actual losses resulted from the man’s actions.
“The defendant and his group of cybercriminals emulated the mafia in organizing their criminal operations,” said US Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York.
“Now, the defendant shares the same fate as so many mafia bosses – a long term of imprisonment. This investigation has spanned the globe and should send the unmistakable message that when it comes to dismantling global cybercrime organizations, we will not be held back by distance or complexity.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division commented, “Vega helped create one of the largest and most sophisticated credit card fraud sites in the cybercrime underworld – a distinction that has earned him the substantial sentence he received today.”