Russian court sentences card fraud ring members to multiple years in prison

A Russian military court has sentenced as many as 26 members of the Flint24 hacker group to multiple years in prison for selling vast amounts of payment card data that were used to withdraw funds from overseas banks.

 

The sentencing was ordered by the 235th Garrison Military Court which found the hacker group’s leader, Alexei Stroganov, as well as twenty five members of the group guilty of perpetrating payment card fraud on a large scale.

 

According to the TASS news agency, the Russian intelligence found that Stroganov and his team of hackers created a website to sell vast amounts of payment card data, including card numbers and CVV and CVC codes, that were sufficient to withdraw funds from banks and make online payments.

 

Stroganov has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and other members of the Flint24 hacker group have received between five and fifteen years in prison and fined between 1,150,000 and 4,600,000 rubles (£43,000). 

 

Stroganov was previously sentenced to six years in prison in 2006 by Moscow’s Lyublinsky Court for producing 5,000 counterfeit Visa, Mastercard, and American Express cards and selling them in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and the United States. He was reportedly released in 2008.

 

According to the U.S. Secret Service, Stroganov and his accomplices continued to hack into the computer networks of individuals and companies to steal hundreds of millions of debit and credit card numbers and personal identifying information associated with the cardholders.

 

"To profit from the scheme, Stroganov oversaw a network of re-sellers and vendors who Stroganov provided with access to databases containing personal identifying information and payment card data for hundreds of thousands of accounts," the Secret Service said. "The vendors then sold that data over the dark net through cybercrime forums and dark net websites. In total, the scheme resulted in losses to financial institutions exceeding $35 million."

 

In January 2024, the District of New Jersey indicted Stroganov one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, three counts of wire fraud, three counts of bank fraud, and three counts of aggravated identity theft. If extradited to the U.S. and convicted on these charges, Stroganov faces a maximum of over fifty years in prison and millions in fines.

 

The court also indicted Tim Stigal, an accomplice of Stroganov’s, on four counts of wire fraud conspiracy, 12 counts of wire fraud, one count of computer fraud extortion, three counts of access device fraud, and three counts of aggravated identity theft. 

 

The unsealed indictments said that Stigal allegedly stole payment card details from at least three different companies and demanded a ransom payment from one of his victims in exchange for not publishing the personal information of the victim company’s sustomers.

 

The sentencing of 26 members of the Flint24 hacker group takes place six years after Russian investigators busted the cyber crime group for using around 90 websites to sell stolen credit card data to buyers worldwide.