SEATTLE—Russian hacker Roman Valeryevich Seleznev has been sentenced to a nearly three-decade prison sentence for crimes related to stealing payment card information.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones handed down the ruling on the 32-year-old Seleznev, who ran a massive malware scheme that targeted U.S. businesses. He was also ordered to pay nearly $170 million in restitution to the businesses and banks that were the victims of his scheme.
The sentence of 27 years is the longest sentence ever handed down in the United States tied to hacking charges, Data Breach Today reported, adding Seleznev faces even more potential jail time via cases that remain underway in federal courts in Georgia and Nevada,
In August 2016, a jury found Seleznev guilty on 38 counts related to defrauding 3,700 financial institutions in the United States of at least $169 million. Between 2009 and 2013, according to evidence presented at the trial, Seleznev oversaw an operation that involved hacking into point-of-sale devices and installing malware designed to steal payment card numbers. Seleznev then bundled the stolen credit and debit card numbers into groups called "bases," which were then sold via dark market websites for the purpose of committing fraud, according to the Department of Justice.
Seleznev had pleaded not guilty to the charges and sought a free defense on the grounds that he had no assets, which prosecutors contested. After being convicted, he admitted to the charges and asked for forgiveness, according to court documents. But prosecutors, in seeking a nearly three-decade prison term for the convicted hacker, argued in court documents that his contrition had come too late, Data Breach Today reported.