Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
November 10, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Northern District of Georgia
Contact: (478) 752-3511

International Effort Defeats Major Hacking Ring

Elaborate Scheme Stole over $9.4 Million from Credit Card Processor

ATLANTA, GA—VIKTOR PLESHCHUK, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia; SERGEI TÅ*URIKOV, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia; and OLEG COVELIN, 28, of ChiÅŸinău, Moldova, along with an unidentified individual, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. IGOR GRUDIJEV, 31, RONALD TSOI, 31, EVELIN TSOI, 20, and MIHHAIL JEVGENOV, 33, each of Tallinn, Estonia, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of access device fraud.

Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of the case, “Last November, in just one day, an American credit card processor was hacked in perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted. Today, almost exactly one year later, the leaders of this attack have been charged. This investigation has broken the back of one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world. This success would not have been possible without the efforts of the victim, and unprecedented cooperation from various law enforcement agencies worldwide.â€