Lawmakers Probe Early Release of Top RU Cybercrook (krebsonsecurity.com) 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: Aleksei Burkov, a cybercriminal who long operated two of Russia's most exclusive underground hacking forums, was arrested in 2015 by Israeli authorities. The Russian government fought Burkov's extradition to the U.S. for four years -- even arresting and jailing an Israeli woman to force a prisoner swap. That effort failed: Burkov was sent to America, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to nine years in prison. But a little more than a year later, he was quietly released and deported back to Russia. Now some Republican lawmakers are asking why a Russian hacker once described as "an asset of supreme importance" was allowed to shorten his stay.
"An ICE spokesperson stated that Burkov is wanted by Russian authorities, and a DOJ spokesperson denied that a prisoner exchange took place," the letter reads. "The decision to prematurely release Burkov is curious given the lengths to which the U.S. government went to secure Burkov's arrest." The letter, signed by the ranking members of the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, demanded to know why Burkov was released prematurely, and whether the U.S. received anything in return. The lawmakers also asked for a list of all Russian nationals convicted of crimes in the U.S. who were released early since President Biden took office.
Records show Burkov was in the custody of either Israeli or U.S. authorities for almost five years prior to his sentencing in 2020. At the time of his release, Burkov had already been incarcerated for nearly six years. So where did the other years of his sentence go? That remains unclear, but it is possible he cut some sort of deal to lessen his sentence. On June 16, 2021, a "sealed pleading" was added to Burkov's court record, followed by a sealed document entered on Aug. 18 -- a week before Burkov's deportation. The motion to seal these and other documents related to the pleading was made by U.S. federal prosecutors, and those documents remain hidden from public viewing. "A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Burkov admitted to running CardPlanet, a site that sold more than 150,000 stolen credit card accounts, and to being a founder of DirectConnection -- a closely guarded online community that attracted some of the world's most-wanted Russian hackers," notes Krebs. "A 2019 deep dive into Burkov's hacker alias 'K0pa' revealed he also was co-administrator of the secretive Russian cybercrime forum 'Mazafaka.' Like DirectConnection, Mazafaka's member roster was a veritable 'Who's Who?' of the Russian hacker underground, and K0pa played a key role in vetting new members and settling disputes for both communities."
"An ICE spokesperson stated that Burkov is wanted by Russian authorities, and a DOJ spokesperson denied that a prisoner exchange took place," the letter reads. "The decision to prematurely release Burkov is curious given the lengths to which the U.S. government went to secure Burkov's arrest." The letter, signed by the ranking members of the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, demanded to know why Burkov was released prematurely, and whether the U.S. received anything in return. The lawmakers also asked for a list of all Russian nationals convicted of crimes in the U.S. who were released early since President Biden took office.
Records show Burkov was in the custody of either Israeli or U.S. authorities for almost five years prior to his sentencing in 2020. At the time of his release, Burkov had already been incarcerated for nearly six years. So where did the other years of his sentence go? That remains unclear, but it is possible he cut some sort of deal to lessen his sentence. On June 16, 2021, a "sealed pleading" was added to Burkov's court record, followed by a sealed document entered on Aug. 18 -- a week before Burkov's deportation. The motion to seal these and other documents related to the pleading was made by U.S. federal prosecutors, and those documents remain hidden from public viewing. "A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Burkov admitted to running CardPlanet, a site that sold more than 150,000 stolen credit card accounts, and to being a founder of DirectConnection -- a closely guarded online community that attracted some of the world's most-wanted Russian hackers," notes Krebs. "A 2019 deep dive into Burkov's hacker alias 'K0pa' revealed he also was co-administrator of the secretive Russian cybercrime forum 'Mazafaka.' Like DirectConnection, Mazafaka's member roster was a veritable 'Who's Who?' of the Russian hacker underground, and K0pa played a key role in vetting new members and settling disputes for both communities."
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you showed your hand, dumbass. when they're right but it SOUNDS like astroturf, you're supposed to ignore it
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i actually have an inkling that this might be true and the ascii-nazi spam post that followed you in here largely validates that
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It is very likely you are talking out of your ass, again.
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That doesn't make any sense, because why would releasing him result in the information not being disseminated? You fruit loops accuse the Clintons of assassinating everyone left and right, and then they don't even kill this guy? So stupid.
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The FBI in the USA has a dangerous practice of releasing known criminals in return for information about their colleagues, and has done so at least since the time of J. Edgar Hoover. A Russian cracker would likely have been able to turn in others. It also seems likely, given their poor history of managing such confidential informants, that this one is already repeating his crimes.
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Israel. There's you answer. They get whatever they ask for.
Makes no sense. They were the ones who arrested him and sent him to the US in the first place; I don't see why they'd suddenly reverse and say no, we want him released.
more like pwnited states (Score:1)
Sentence length (Score:2)
It's fairly common for an inmate to serve half their sentence in jail, and then the rest outside on parole with various restrictions etc...
This guy was sentenced to 9 years, served 6 so 2/3 of his sentence, and not having any right to stay in the US he would not be able to live there on parole. Assuming he was well behaved in jail and didn't earn a longer sentence while there it's not unreasonable for him to be out after 6 years, and then be sent back to russia to face whatever the russian authorities are a
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It's fairly common for an inmate to serve half their sentence in jail, and then the rest outside on parole with various restrictions etc... This guy was sentenced to 9 years, served 6 so 2/3 of his sentence, and not having any right to stay in the US he would not be able to live there on parole. Assuming he was well behaved in jail and didn't earn a longer sentence while there it's not unreasonable for him to be out after 6 years, and then be sent back to russia to face whatever the russian authorities are after him for.
Also, why did the Republicans wait for months to bring this up? They did not seem to have any problems with it right up until Putin's Ukraine invasion at which point it became distinctly unfashionable to simp and lobby for Putin which is what a lot of them have been doing for years in order to suck up to Trump. I suppose they'll grab at any straw when desperately trying to re-cast themselves as not being massive fans of the insane dictator who just started a shooting war in Europe.
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