Lawyer for alleged Methbot scammer refuses to visit jail over coronavirus concerns
A defense attorney for the head of an alleged cybercriminal conspiracy that defrauded American companies out of tens of millions of dollars is refusing to visit the defendant in a Brooklyn jail because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lawyer for Aleksandr Zhukov, the accused boss of the Methbot/3ve advertising fraud conspiracy, informed a U.S. judge that they would no longer visit Zhukov behind bars to prepare for trial, according to a court filing submitted Friday. The attorney, who goes unnamed, cited unsafe conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where Zhukov has been incarcerated for more than a year. Zhukov pleaded not guilty in January 2019 to charges that he functioned as the ringleader of the so-called Methbot fraud operation, which the U.S. Department of Justice described as an international scheme that bilked marketing companies out of $29 million. Zhukov allegedly led a group of eight accused scammers who used malicious software […]
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