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US hands down another 14-year jail term for Russian already sentenced to 27 years

Roman Seleznev was charged with numerous cyber crimes

Roman Seleznev U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Roman Seleznev

© U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

NEW YORK, December 1. /TASS/. Russian citizen Roman Seleznev, already sentenced to 27 years behind bars on cyber fraud charges, received another 14-year jail term on Thursday, the US Department of Justice said.

Seleznev "was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for his role in a $50 million cyberfraud ring and for defrauding banks of $9 million through a hacking scheme," the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

On Aug. 25, 2016, a federal jury in Seattle convicted Seleznev of 38 out of 40 counts of cybercrime. He was charged with hacking into databases of approximately 200 US companies. On April 21, Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison for those crimes, which will run concurrent to his sentences handed down on Thursday.

Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Republic of Maldives on July 5, 2014. On the same day, he was extradited to the island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Guam’s district court refused to release the Russian and handed down a decision to deport him to Seattle, where charges against him were brought.

Moscow claims that Seleznev was not arrested but "kidnapped" by the US authorities while the case against him is politically motivated.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry repeatedly voiced protests against the policy of the US authorities that encourage their special services to "literally kidnap our citizens abroad." "The tragic cases of Roman Seleznev and Konstantin Yaroshenko are examples of that policy. The US authorities put these Russian citizens to prison and deliberately deprived them of proper medical assistance," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

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