Russian national Vladimir Zdorovenin, accused of financial cybercrimes, faces up to 142 years in prison in the United States, where he was extradited from Switzerland on Monday, Southern District of New York Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement on Tuesday.
At his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein in Manhattan federal court later on Tuesday, Vladimir pleaded not guilty. His lawyer refused to comment on the case.
Bharara and Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Office, announced the unsealing of a nine-count indictment charging Zdorovenin and his son Kirill with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, and securities fraud.
The father and son were indicted under seal in May 2007.
Vladimir was apprehended on March 27, 2011, in Zurich, Switzerland, and arrived in New York on Monday after being extradited by the Swiss authorities. Kirill remains at large.
“As alleged, Vladimir Zdorovenin and his son… engaged in serial cybercrimes in Russia that targeted Americans, and wrought havoc with their personal and financial information, using it to make phony purchases and to manipulate stock prices,” Bharara said.
According to the unsealed indictment, between 2004 and 2005 the Russians “allegedly engaged in a series of crimes in Russia that victimized citizens of the United States through the use of stolen credit card information, multiple phony websites, and bank accounts in Russia and Latvia.”
Fedarcyk said the Zdorovenins “allegedly defrauded consumers of hundreds of thousands of dollars using methods that included compromised credit cards, all fronted through fictitious companies they had created.”
