Belarusian hacker and YouTube blogger Sergei Pavlovich was detained in St. Petersburg. He is on the international wanted list under a US warrant, where he is charged with the largest theft of personal data from 170 million credit cards, thanks to which more than $1 billion was stolen. However, he was quickly released.
Sergei Pavlovich was detained by police officers on November 1 near the Emerald Hotel in St. Petersburg. A 38-year-old citizen of Belarus came to the city for the weekend, after he checked into the hotel, law enforcement agencies immediately detained him. Sergei Pavlovich was taken to the nearest police station, where he was held for several hours, and then released.
It is possible that such a decision was made because the Belarusian citizen is on the international wanted list under a US warrant, with which Russia does not have a bilateral agreement on the mutual extradition of suspects and accused.
After returning from the police station, Sergey Pavlovich hastened to reassure his subscribers in social networks by publishing a story with the message: “Alive, healthy and free”, and promised to broadcast on YouTube to answer all questions.
In the United States, Mr. Pavlovich has been accused of the largest theft of personal data on 170 million credit cards since 2008. Then more than $1 billion was stolen.
There is already a convict in this case in the United States. In 2016, an American court found Albert Gonzalez, the founder of the ShadowCrew international carder exchange, guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to the American investigation, other people participated in the scheme, including Sergey Pavlovich, who is accused of organizing the transfer of unauthorized access devices. This crime is punishable by up to life imprisonment.
However, Sergey Pavlovich has already been in prison for cybercrimes. In 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony in Belarus for carding but was released early in 2015. In 2014, while still in prison, the hacker wrote the book “How I stole a million. Confession of a repentant carder.” After being released from prison, the hacker began to develop his YouTube channel.
