Russian ‘Pizza Hacker’ Begins Trial In US Court

The trial of a Russian man accused of orchestrating a hacking scheme that targeted US pizza restaurants began this week in the USA.

Prosecutors allege that Seleznev was the master hacker behind $170 million worth of fraudulent purchases, that mostly took place at targeted pizza restaurants in the USA.

As part of the case against him, Seleznev allegedly also hacked into the restaurants, stole credit card information, and then sold it via underground dark web internet forums.

Roman Seleznev, the son of a prominent Russian politician was arrested in the Maldives in 2014.

When Seleznev was arrested, Federal agents claim to have found a treasure trove of 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers on his laptop computer.

Seleznev faces a 40-count indictment that charges him with running a hacking scheme from 2008 until his arrest in the Maldives in July 2014.

“The evidence will show that for seven years, the defendant was one of the largest traffickers of stolen credit card numbers in the world.”

Defence lawyers for Seleznev had initially argued that his arrest was tantamount to a kidnapping, or illegal rendition and as such, had violated international law, however a US District judge disallowed the argument from trial.

Seleznev’s lawyers have also stated that by searching the accused Russian’s laptop without a warrant, Seleznev was not given due process and subsequent data being used by the prosecution may have been altered or directly tampered with.

Agents started on Seleznev’s trail in 2010 after a deli in Idaho was hacked and credit card data was stolen, Wilkinson said. The U.S. Secret Service and local detectives traced the hack to a computer server in Russia, he said.

Seleznev was indicted in 2011, but the agents couldn’t arrest him in Russia. But in 2014 when they learned he was on vacation in the Maldives, they worked with local police to arrest him at the airport.

The trial continues.