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After being detained and until extradition to the United States, Burkov was held in Israeli prisons.
A court in Virginia (USA) sentenced Alexei Burkov to nine years in prison, convicting him of cyber fraud. According to the prosecution, the Russian caused damage in the amount of more than $ 20 million.
Burkov received six years less than the prosecution requested. He pleaded guilty, but only on two points out of five: he confessed to fraud with access devices, as well as conspiracy to commit fraud, theft of personal information, intrusion into computer systems and money laundering, RIA Novosti reported. If the court ruled him good behavior, Burkov will be able to leave in about three years, the Associated Press agency writes.
“Kommersant”, citing the words of lawyer Burkova, wrote that the defendant made a deal with the prosecutor to drop charges on three points in exchange for a guilty plea on two.
“Alexey Burkov received an offer from the US prosecutor’s office, an agreement was reached on cooperation,” said Arkady Bukh, adviser to the Russian defense group. Earlier, Burkov denied all charges against him.
The judge ruled that Burkov serve his sentence in the District of Columbia district of Washington, the Associated Press writes. This decision was made to make it easier for him to communicate with his lawyer, which may be necessary “for reasons that I do not consider it necessary to explain,” the agency reports the judge.
Burkov’s lawyer Gregory Stambo, who asked his client to serve time in this area, refused to comment on whether Burkov could be part of the prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States, the agency writes.
Already served – will be counted
“The court ruled that your sentence will be 108 months on the second point of the accusation, and on the fifth paragraph, your sentence will be 60 months. However, these terms will be parallel, that is, your final sentence is 108 months,” RIA Novosti quoted the judge as saying.
The judge noted that on time Burkova will be counted for the already served sentence in Israel (where he was detained) – about four and a half years, as well as the time spent in prison in the United States – from November 2019.
Burkov will also be required to pay restitution in the amount of seven thousand dollars. After serving his sentence, he will be monitored for three years, although the judge noted that he was most likely to be deported.
20 million fraudulent purchases
According to the US state prosecution, in 2009-2013 Burkov managed the Cardplanet website, which sold stolen bank card information, many of which belonged to US citizens.
It is alleged that the data of 150 thousand cards were compromised, and fraudulent purchases of $ 20 million were made on them. The cost of the data ranged from 2.5 to 60 dollars.
In addition, according to the prosecution, the Russian organized a forum called “Direct Connection”, where “elite cybercriminals could meet and safely post messages while planning various cybercrimes”, buy and sell stolen goods and services, for example, personal data and malicious software. They also allegedly offered criminal services for money laundering and hacking. Those who wanted to get to the forum had to pay five thousand dollars, and three of its participants had to vouch for them.
“After you became a member of Direct Connection, you became a criminal because you had access to the best criminals in the world,” Associated Press spokeswoman Kellen Dwyer said at a meeting on Friday, June 26.
Burkov was detained in Tel Aviv Airport in 2015, and extradited to the United States in November 2019. The process went on in the federal court of the Eastern District in Virginia, since the cards sold by the convicted Russian were issued by a bank headquartered in that state.
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