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US jury finds Russian citizen Zhukov guilty of online fraud — agency

The Russian citizen pleaded not guilty to charges against him

NEW YORK, May 28. /TASS/. A US jury found Russian citizen Alexander Zhukov guilty of online fraud on Friday, Bloomberg reported.

The agency did not specify when the sentencing would take place and what punishment Zhukov was facing.

According to prosecutors, Zhukov was involved in a scheme to fraudulently obtain digital advertising revenue. The prosecution says that he and other individuals received payments from various companies based on how many users clicked or watched their ads. However, instead of real people, web traffic and views Zhukov was paid for were generated by bots.

The Russian citizen pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying that he never concealed from his clients the fact that the ad views he was paid for were, in fact, bot traffic.

Zhukov was detained on a US warrant in Bulgaria in November 2018. Five other Russians were also charged in the case: Boris Timokhin, Denis Avdeyev, Dmitry Novikov, Alexander Isayev and Mikhail Andreyev. Also, the US charged two Kazakh citizens: Yevgeny Timchenko and Sergei Ovsyannikov. In January 2019, Zhukov was extradited to the US.