Cybercriminal with Ties to Exclusive Russian Hacking Forums Sentenced to Prison

A federal court sentenced a 29-year-old Russian-born man living in Los Angeles, today, to 110 months in prison for pilfering and selling sensitive personal and financial information on elite Russian-speaking cybercriminal forums.

Alexander Tverdokhlebov, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in March, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison. Federal authorities seized approximately $5 million in Bitcoin and $272,000 in cash from him. According to the plea agreement, victims' estimate losses totaled between $9.5 million to $25 million.

Tverdokhlebov, who emigrated from Russia in 2007 and eventually became a US citizen, would offer stolen personal and financial information on the Russian cybercriminal forums, as well as his services and the exchange of tools. He also operated several botnets.

While on these Russian cybercriminal forums, Tverdokhlebov boasted he possessed 40,000 stolen credit card numbers and controlled as many as 500,000 infected computers for his botnets. At the time of his arrest in February, he was booked on trying to steal money from thousands of online US bank accounts.

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