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| Undated family photo taken in Sochi shows Roman Seleznev (C), the son of a Russian lawmaker from the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR), posing with his partner Anna Otisko (R) and their daughter (AFP Photo / HO) |
A
US federal judge in Seattle has refused to release on a $1 million bond Russian
citizen Roman Seleznyov, who is accused of hacking credit cards’ data. A son of
a prominent Russian lawmaker, Seleznyov will remain in custody until trial.
Roman
Seleznyov, 30, appeared in US District Court in Seattle on Friday to face
hacking charges after he was indicted in 2011. The son of Russian MP Valery
Seleznyov is accused of being involved in bank fraud, obtaining information
from protected computerized cash registers, aggravated identity theft,
trafficking in unauthorized access devices and possessing hundreds of thousands
of stolen credit card numbers.
A
grand jury in Washington State has heard claims that Seleznyov sold the data
online for at least $2 million.
Seleznyov
has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which potentially could be
punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
He
is also wanted in Nevada on similar, though unrelated charges.
The
judge declined the plea to release Seleznyov on home detention with electronic
monitoring and no Internet access on condition of posting $100,000 in cash on a
$1 million bond.
Seleznyov’s
lawyer stressed that his client does not represent any danger to society. “He's not going anywhere,”
attorney Robert Ray said. “This
case does not involve an act of terrorism. It does not involve an act of war.”
But
the US prosecutor claimed that new evidence recovered from Seleznyov’s laptop
after his arrest in the Maldives last month gave “new insight into the breadth of his activities,”
AP reported.
US
Assistant District Attorney Norman Barbosa informed the court that “at first look”
Seleznyov’s laptop contained 2.1 million stolen credit card numbers and that
defendant’s profits from criminal activities had topped $17 million.
“Those
funds have remained beyond the reach of US law enforcement, so they are
probably almost definitely available to the defendant”
should he try to flee, Barbosa told Judge James Donohue.
Barbosa claimed that
Seleznyov had been searching the online system of the US federal courts for
charges filed against him under his real name and his online nicknames while he
and his girlfriend Anna Otisko vacationed in the Maldives.
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The
judge noted that although Seleznyov had been stripped of his passport, “the court has no doubt he would be able
to procure” documents that would enable him to flee justice.
In
2011, a month after the sealed indictment was returned, Seleznyov became a
victim of a terrorist attack in a café in Morocco. He received a brain injury
and spent two weeks in a coma, undergoing a series of operations, Ray told the
court.
The
lawyer reiterated the claim of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which has accused
the US government of kidnapping Seleznyov.
Russia’s
consul general in Seattle, Andrey Yushmanov, who also attended the hearing
Friday, said Moscow remains concerned about the circumstances of Seleznyov's
arrest, because instead of contacting Russian authorities and presenting
evidence of illegal activities by a Russian citizen, US law enforcement used a
third-party nation to get the suspect arrested and extradited to the US, just
as happened to Russian arms merchant Viktor Bout in Thailand in 2008.
US
Secret Service agents arrested Seleznyov at Male international airport in the
Maldives, working in close cooperation with local officials, despite the lack
of an extradition treaty between this country and the US.
After
that Seleznyov was brought to the US military prison on the Guam Island in the
Pacific, where another US federal judge ordered him to be sent to a prison in
Seattle.
The US prosecutor claimed
that Seleznyov had been travelling extensively, yet always to those countries
that have no extradition treaty with the US.
Culled from RT.com
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