Russian cybercriminal Alexei Burkov, who was serving nine years sentence for cybercrimes in a US jail since June 2020, was deported by the United States and detained on Tuesday at Moscow airport Reuters reports quoting Russian media and Russia’s Interior Ministry.
Due to the lack of an extradition treaty between Russia and the US, such prisoner returns are rare.
According to the US Department of Justice, Burkov was jailed by the US following the extradition from Israel in November 2019 after his arrest there in December 2015.
The extradition was approved based on the US DOJ’s accusations against him of operating two websites devoted to the facilitation of payment card fraud, computer hacking, and other crimes.
Burkov was stealing and selling credit card data, mostly belonging to US citizens, and ran separate cybercrime forum allowing members to offer criminal services, including money laundering and hacking, and to advertise stolen goods.
In January 2020, Burkov pleaded guilty, among other charges, for fraud, identity theft, computer intrusions and money laundering.
After landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Burkov was detained by the Russian police that sought his arrest through Interpol after he had been charged in absentia in 2017 by Russia for manufacturing and sale of counterfeit bank cards and trading in customers’ confidential data of credit and financial institutions.
He was charged with theft, illegal obtaining/ disclosure of commercial, fiscal or banking secrecy illegal misuse of payment funds and with creation, use and distribution of harmful computer programs.
Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk noted that Burkov was engaged in criminal activity in the period from 2008 to 2015.
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