Category Archives: Pyotr Levashov

U.S., Russia fighting to extradite suspected Russian cybercriminal who ran $4 billion bitcoin exchange

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The case against the Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik opened in a Greek courtroom on Friday with two world powers sparring over who will extradite the Russian citizen. Vinnik, 37, pleaded not guilty to charges from the United States that he ran the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e and engaged in money laundering at the scale of $4 billion. His lawyer is fighting extradition to California where federal charges were filed against him. He was arrested on those charges while he vacationed in Greece over the summer. A decision on the U.S. request is set to be made by Oct. 4. Vinnik, a Russian national, also faces charges in Russia in a separate fraud case that will reach a Greek court next week. Vinnik’s lawyer said he won’t fight that extradition request, indicating a preference of Moscow over the United States. The U.S. Justice Department describes Vinnik as the man behind BTC-e, […]

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Fake News at Work in Spam Kingpin’s Arrest?

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Over the past several days, many Western news media outlets have predictably devoured thinly-sourced reporting from a Russian publication that the arrest last week of a Russian spam kingpin in Spain was related to hacking attacks linked to last year’s U.S. election. While there is scant evidence that the spammer’s arrest had anything to do with the election, the success of that narrative is a sterling example of how the Kremlin’s propaganda machine is adept at manufacturing fake news, undermining public trust in the media, and distracting attention away from the real story. Continue reading Fake News at Work in Spam Kingpin’s Arrest?→

Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested

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Authorities in Spain have arrested a Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world’s most notorious spam kingpins.

Spanish police arrested Pyotr Levashov under an international warrant executed in the city of Barcelona, according to Reuters. Russian state-run television station RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that Levashov was arrested while vacationing in Spain with his family.

According to numerous stories here at KrebsOnSecurity, Levashov was better known as “Severa,” the hacker moniker used by a pivotal figure in many popular Russian-language cybercrime forums. Severa was the moderator for the spam subsection of multiple online communities, and in this role served as the virtual linchpin connecting virus writers with huge spam networks that Severa allegedly created and sold himself. Continue reading Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested→