WASHINGTON, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - A US court in Seattle has indicted alleged Russian cybercriminal Roman Seleznev on 11 additional counts, bringing the total number of charges to 40, the US Department of Justice said late on Thursday.
The Russian national is accused of hatching a scheme to "hack into businesses and steal credit card information for later sale over the Internet on 'carding' websites," the justice authority said, summing up the entire bulk of charges as "hacking, wire fraud, credit card theft and identity theft."
US prosecutors implicated Seleznev in the theft and sale of more than 2 million credit card numbers. They claim that between October 2009 and October 2013 Seleznev allegedly hacked into retail point of sale systems and installed malicious software to steal credit card numbers from various businesses.
Acting US Attorney Annette Hayes in Washington commented on the indictment, saying "the government expects to prove at trial that Seleznev was a leader in the marketplace for stolen credit card numbers, and even created a website offering a tutorial on how to use stolen credit card numbers to commit crime."
Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell explained that "the additions in this superseding indictment show how cybercriminals use the Internet not only to infiltrate and steal sensitive data, but also to teach other criminals how to navigate the credit-card selling underworld and get equipment that can be used to defraud US citizens."
"The Criminal Division is committed to investigating these thefts and uncovering the methods of computer hackers to stay one step ahead of them and bring them to face justice," she vowed.
On July 5, Roman Seleznev was detained by US secret service agents in the Maldives and brought to Guam, and later to Washington. He may face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty. He is now scheduled for trial on November 3, 2014.
The Russian Foreign Ministry and Seleznev's father Valery describe the arrest as a "kidnapping."
