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CNN · 1 hour ago
The US and Russia are fighting over the extradition of this hacking mastermind
Story highlights
- Yevgeniy Nikulin sits in a Czech prison as the US and Russia both seek to extradite him
- The alleged computer hacker appeared to enjoy a lavish lifestyle before his arrest
(CNN)A
young Russian alleged to have masterminded a massive hacking of social
networks including LinkedIn and Dropbox is now at the center of an
extradition struggle between the United States and Russia.
Yevgeniy Nikulin was
detained in October 2016, in the Czech Republic capital of Prague,
after US authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him. He
was on vacation there with his girlfriend.
A grand jury indictment
filed in 2016 in California charges him with computer intrusion and
aggravated identity theft, among other offenses. Nikulin denies all the
charges. If convicted of all charges, he could face a maximum sentence
of more than 50 years in prison and more than $2 million in fines.
But soon after his arrest, Russian authorities also sought his extradition.
The Russian charge referred to the alleged theft from an online money transfer company back in 2009.
The
amount involved was $3,450. That pales in comparison with the
accusations laid out by US prosecutors. LinkedIn said the 2012 breach of
its servers might have compromised the credentials of 100 million
users.
The Foreign Ministry in
Moscow said soon afterward it was "actively working with the Czech
authorities to prevent the extradition of a Russian citizen to the
United States."
Political hot potato
Nikulin
has spent the last 13 months behind the walls of Pankrac prison in
Prague and has received at least one visit from FBI agents, his
attorney, Martin Sadilek, said.
Hearings in his extradition case have been held inside the prison for security reasons, according to Czech officials.
The FBI said its policy is not to comment on ongoing extradition matters until those involved are in the United States.
On Friday, the Czech High Court rejected arguments from Nikulin's lawyer that he should not be extradited to the United States.
In
doing so, it has passed a political hot potato to the justice minister,
Robert Pelikan. He must decide whether the Russian or American request
takes precedence, a decision that will undoubtedly anger the losing
party.
Nikulin's legal team plans
to file a constitutional complaint with the Czech Constitutional Court,
alleging that the suspect's "basic human rights and freedoms" guaranteed
in the Czech constitution were infringed, Sadilek said.
The Czech Constitutional Court can revoke the High Court's ruling if it finds out that Nikulin's rights were violated.
Nikulin's lawyers also are contemplating taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights, Sadilek said.
Nikulin, of Moscow, was 29 when he was arrested.
According to his Instagram account, he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of luxury cars and expensive jewelry.
At
the time of his arrest, he was staying in a five-star hotel in Prague
after driving through Belarus and Poland in his Mercedes.
He also claimed he owned a Bentley and Lamborghini.
Strain on US-Russian relations
The
Nikulin case is yet another strain on US-Russian relations. Russian
authorities have objected to US efforts to extradite Russian nationals
from third countries in connection with alleged hacking offenses. US
authorities have filed extradition requests for Russian hackers arrested
in Latvia, Spain and Greece.
Perhaps the most high-profile case this year
is that of Peter Levashov, arrested in Barcelona in April. Levashov is
alleged to have been a prolific spammer with connections to the Kelihos
malware, a global network of infected computers under the control of a cybercriminal
that was used to facilitate malicious activities including harvesting
login credentials, distributing spam e-mails and installing malicious
software.
Levashov's extradition
proceedings are continuing. Levashov denies the charges again him and is
continuing to fight extradition, according to Reuters.
Another
Russian national, Maxim Senakh, was sentenced in US federal court in
August for involvement in a "criminal enterprise that installed and
exploited malicious computer software (malware) on tens of thousands of
computer servers throughout the world to generate millions of dollars in
fraudulent payments."
Senakh was arrested in Finland in February 2016.
Most
of those pursued by US authorities have been accused of involvement in
sophisticated fraud. None, so far, has been accused of participating in
interference in the US election campaign.
However,
the Justice Department has contended that the Russian intelligence
service -- the FSB -- has cooperated with hackers. In an indictment this
year related to a massive hack of Yahoo accounts, the Justice
Department said that FSB officers "protected, directed, facilitated and
paid" the hackers to conduct the computer intrusions in the United
States.
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