Vladislav Horohorin

Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, (Russian: Владислав Анатольевич Хорохорин), alias BadB, is a former hacker and international credit card trafficker who was convicted^[1] of wire fraud and served a seven-year prison sentence.

Early life

Horohorin was born on September 29, 1982, and grew up in Donetsk, Ukraine, emigrating in 1999 to Israel with his mother, where he served in the Israeli Defence Forces.

Investigation

According to the undercover investigation led by the United States Secret Service, Horohorin was one of the founders of CarderPlanet, one of several websites taken down^[2] in 2004 as part of the Secret Service's Operation Firewall investigation. The web sites were operated by cyber criminal organizations to traffic counterfeit credit cards, and false identification information and documents. These websites not only shared information on how to commit fraud, but also provided a forum through which to purchase fraud-related information and tools. "The network created by the founders of CarderPlanet, including Vladislav Horohorin, remains one of the most sophisticated organizations of online financial criminals in the world," said Michael Merritt, Assistant Director for Investigations. "This network has been repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the international law enforcement community. This arrest illustrates the significance of the Secret Service's commitment to traversing the globe in pursuit of online criminals."

Horohorin promoted his illegal activities by creating video cartoons ridiculing American card holders.^[3]

Separately, in 2013, Horohorin was named co-conspirator in an indictment, but was not subsequently charged, in a criminal case in District of New Jersey 09-626(JBS), in which other Russian individuals were charged with successfully hacking Nasdaq, 7-Eleven, Carefour, JCPenney, Heartland Payment Systems, Dow Jones, Jetblue and 23 more corporations.^[4][5] This breach was called the "Largest known data breach conspiracy ever prosecuted" by the U.S. Justice Department.^[6] As of April 2017, none of Horohorin's co-conspirators had been sentenced.^[7][8]

Arrest, extradition, guilty plea, and sentencing

Horohorin was identified as "BadB" in November 2009 in a sealed indictment from the United States attorney's office.^[9] He was arrested on August 7, 2010, in Nice, France, while attempting to board an airplane to Warsaw, Poland.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]} However, due to the complexity of the international legal battle that followed his arrest, he was not extradited to the United States until June 6, 2012.^[19] During the proceedings in France, Horohorin was incarcerated in the Maison D'Arret D'Aix-Luynes near Aix-en-Provence, France.^[20] Horohorin was arraigned on June 7, 2012, and was detained pending trial.^{[21][22][23][24][25] [26]}

The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs handled Horohorin's extradition from France.

The case was prosecuted by attorneys Ethan Arenson (who later also prosecuted another notorious cyber criminal, Roman Seleznev), Carol Sipperly, and Corbin Weiss of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). The District of Columbia case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. Assistance was provided by the French Police Nationale Aux Frontiers and the Netherlands Police Agency's National Crime Squad High Tech Crime Unit. The FBI Atlanta Field Office provided information helpful to the investigation.

The Northern District of Georgia case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nick Oldham and Lawrence R. Sommerfeld of the Northern District of Georgia, and trial attorney Sipperly of CCIPS. The Atlanta case was investigated by the FBI.

Horohorin was represented by Arkady L. Bukh during proceedings in the U.S. On October 25, 2012, Horohorin pleaded guilty to two counts of access device fraud as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud.^[27]

On April 5, 2013, Horohorin was sentenced to serve 88 months in prison for his role in the theft of more than $9 million from RBS Worldpay,^[28] (an Atlanta-based credit card processor), and trafficking in millions of stolen credit and debit cards.^[29][30]

In February 2017, Horohorin was released and was deported from the United States.^[31]

Post-prison activities

The U.S. assigned two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to escort Horohorin, while being deported, to Israel, using U.S. airline companies only. Such measures caused Horohorin to be held for what he considered extra time in ICE custody; according to his lawyer, Arkady L. Bukh, "Horohorin opposed ICE detention fiercely, refusing to stay any extra minute in US and demanding to be deported, claiming that his sentence is finished and offering to pay his own plane tickets".

Horohorin works as private consultant and security auditor for cybersec.org^[32][33][34]

References