August 11, 2010
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News: Secret Service/French Cuff Major Cyber Thief
According to the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the brains behind one of the most highly refined credit card theft operations across the globe, has been apprehended. According to the USSS Assistant Director Michael Merritt, Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin is one of the creators of an online credit card black market known as CarderPlanet which "has been repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the international law enforcement community." Horohorin was arrested in Nice, France based on a notice from the U.S. Justice Department. Horohorin, alias "BadB", will be extradited to the U.S. to face charges on access device fraud and aggravated identity theft for his role in the online credit card black market operation.
The French police arrested Horohorin in response to a warrant that was issued by the U.S. after an indictment was handed down. At the time, the suspect was about to board a flight to Moscow. The U.S. indictment which was handed down by a federal grand jury in November 2009 remained sealed. However, it does indicate that Horohorin played a major role in the online credit card black market site known as "CarderPlanet" and "carder.su." An Israeli and Ukrainian citizen, Horohorin used the alias BadB to setup vendor accounts for purchase of stolen credit card data.
In a statement, the U.S. Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division in Washington, D.C. said that the U.S. is serious about apprehending credit card thieves who think they can get away with it just because they operate outside the U.S. borders. This latest arrest is another example of how the U.S. Justice Department is holding to their word to fight cyber crime. Breuer also noted that the department also extradited another major player in the cyber crime arena last week to face similar charges. Horohorin faces up to 12 years in prison and a possible $500,000 fine.