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US court sentences Russian hacker to 12 years in prison

Dmitriy Smilianets who is facing similar accusations, was released from the court room

CAMDEN /New Jersey/, February 15. /TASS/. A New Jersey federal court has sentenced Russian national, Vladimir Drinkman, to 12 years behind bars on cyber theft and fraud charges involving a credit card hacking scheme a TASS correspondent reported from the court on Wednesday.

Drinkman, who pleaded guilty in September 2015, has been sentenced to "144 months in prison," after which he will be on parole for three years if he stays in the country, the judge said. US authorities accused him of having organized the largest hacker attack in American history.

Drinkman was detained in Amsterdam on June 28, 2012 at the FBI’s request on suspicion of cybercrimes, and extradited to the US State of New Jersey in February 2015.

Meanwhile, another Russian national Dmitriy Smilianets who is facing similar accusations, was released from the courtroom for time served on Wednesday.

According to investigators, Smilyanets, as well as three other Russian citizens and one citizen of Ukraine, were involved in hacking computer networks of several companies and stealing data on 160 million credit cards. The scam victims, among others, are the NASDAQ electronic exchange, JetBlue Airlines, JC Penney, the French retailer Carrefour and Belgian bank Dexia. The hackers inflicted losses that reportedly exceeded $300 million.

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