Russian Hacker Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

Vladimir Zdorovenin, 55, of Moscow, Russia, was recently sentenced in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison and a $1 million fine for fraud, identity theft and hacking. Zdorovenin was deported from Switzerland to the U.S. in January of 2012.

"According to the US Department of Justice, the man and his son, Kirill Zdorovenin, are accused of conspiring to steal the personal details, including credit card information, of several US citizens between 2004 and 2005, while residing in Russia," writes Softpedia's Eduard Kovacs.

"The whereabouts of Kirill Zdorovenin are unknown," The Voice of Russia reports. "According to investigators he was the organizer of the 'business.'"

"Prosecutors alleged that the Zdorovenins and unidentified accomplices controlled U.S.-registered companies Sofeco LLC, Pintado LLC and Tallit LL that appeared to be legitimate Internet merchants which sold legitimate goods," writes Bloomberg's Patricia Hurtado. "The defendants both took unauthorized charges on customers' credit cards, prosecutors said. They also got credit card numbers by either buying them from unidentified people who had obtained them illegally or by using computer programs that were surreptitiously installed on victims' computers, the U.S. alleged."

"From his perch halfway across the globe, Vladimir Zdorovenin engaged in a slew of cyber crimes that left multiple victims in the United States," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Cybercrime is particularly insidious because there is no need for geographic proximity between perpetrators and their victims, and Zdorovenin’s sentence today should serve as a reminder to others that law enforcement does not require geographic proximity to prosecute these crimes either."