NEW YORK, September 30. /TASS/. The US District Court for the Northern District of California sentenced Russian citizen Yevgeny Nikulin to about seven years and four months in jail for cybercrimes on Tuesday.
During the court session, broadcast online via Zoom, Judge William Alsup said Nikulin was sentenced to 88 months behind bars. The Russian citizen will most likely be deported after the release, he said.
One of Nikulin’s lawyers, Arkady Bukh said the Russian citizen will have to spend slightly more than two years in prison, and the defense team was now considering the possibility of appeal.
According to Bukh, the sentence can be reduced by about 15% for good conduct. Moreover, the 48 months that the Russian citizen had already spent in pretrial detention will be credited as time served.
"It turns out that, if his conduct is good, he will have to spend about 26 months behind bars, which is slightly more than two years," he said.
"We are now going to study all case materials and transcripts," the lawyer added. "An appeal is very likely."
The Russian embassy in Washington said it was closely following the trial and rendering all the necessary consular and legal assistance to Nikulin. "We maintain contact with him and his lawyer," the embassy said.
The trial of Nikulin, accused of cybercrimes in the US, began in San Francisco on March 9, but it was suspended on March 16 due to the spread of coronavirus. The US authorities hold Nikulin responsible for a number of crimes, including hacking into computer systems and theft of personal data. He was detained in Prague on October 5, 2016. In November 2016, a request for Nikulin’s extradition was lodged by Russia, where he is accused of stealing $3,400 through the Internet in 2009.
The Czech Republic on March 31 confirmed that Nikulin was extradited to the United States. On the same day he faced a court in San Francisco to plead not guilty.
In July, the jury found Nikulin gulty on all the nine counts of cybercrime.