At trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Mr. Seleznev had run one of the largest credit card
and online identity theft rings, under various aliases, including Track2, 2pac and nCuX — derived from the Russian word for “psycho.”
Given the large number of victims and financial losses, federal sentencing guidelines indicated
that Mr. Seleznev should be given a life sentence, but prosecutors recommended the 30-year sentence.
On Friday, a judge sentenced Roman Valerevich Seleznev, 32, to 27 years in prison — the longest sentence handed down for hacking-related charges in the United States — for running a huge credit card
and identity theft operation from his various homes in Bali, Indonesia, and Vladivostok, Russia, and for selling millions of credit card numbers on the black market.
But in a rare, major victory in Federal District Court in Seattle, the Justice Department netted
a big player in a Russian digital crime ring who is the son of a prominent Russian lawmaker.
The elder Mr. Seleznev has accused the United States of “kidnapping” his son, and he told a Russian news outlet
that the charges against him were a “monstrous lie.” The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Russia has lashed out at Maldivian authorities for cooperating with the United States in what it, too, has described as a “kidnapping.”
Valery Seleznev’s office in the Russian Parliament did not respond to a written request for comment sent Friday.
“This is a huge success in that there are significant challenges to indicting Russian cybercriminals,” said Levi Gundert,
a former Secret Service agent who now works as vice president of intelligence at Recorded Future, a cybersecurity firm.