Roman Seleznev, also known as “Track2,” has been convicted on charges that he conspired to hack into U.S. businesses as part of a plot to steal and sell credit card numbers. The hack is estimated to have cost upwards of $169 million.
The son of a Russian parliament member, Seleznev was found guilty on 38 of 40 charges brought against him. Those counts included wire fraud and intentional damage to a protected computer.
The case hinges on hacks that took place from Oct. 2009 to Oct. 2013. During that time, Seleznev hacked into retail point-of-sale systems and installed malware to steal credit card numbers from businesses. Pizza restaurants in Washington State were a particular favorite target. The trial lasted eight days.
And while that may seem short, the trial concluded a decade-long investigation by the U.S. Secret Service. Seleznev was only able to be tried in the U.S. when he was caught in the Maldives before he was able to return from a vacation. Seleznev and various Russian officials have accused the Secret Service of kidnapping him to trial. He is now facing a mandatory minimum of four years in prison, according to his lawyer, John Henry Browne.
Browne intends to appeal the case on the grounds that the trial itself is predicated on an illegal arrest and that prosecutors were able to submit evidence from a corrupted laptop.
“I don’t know of any case that has allowed such outrageous behavior,” Browne said.
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Outrageous or not, prosecutors managed to convince a jury that Seleznev was behind the theft and resale of over 2.9 million credit card numbers. His adventures in the U.S. legal system are not quite complete; he still faces separate charges pending in federal courts in Nevada and Georgia.
