Yevgeniy Anikin, a programmer from Novosibirsk, who admitted his implication in hacking RBS WorldPay payment system, got a five-year suspended sentence with 3 years on probation, Interfax informs. The verdict was delivered by Zayeltsovsky district court of Novosibirsk February 8, 2011.
The prosecution insisted on sentencing a 27-year old progammer to 5 years in penal colony. Whether the prosecution will appeal from the judgment is still unknown.
Yevgeniy Anikin was charged with a large-scale theft, envisaged by point 6, part 4 and article 158 of the Russian Criminal Code. At his last speech, the convicted admitted his guilt and expressed his readiness for a term on condition. The programmer confessed that a year in pre-trial detention facility was a lesson to learnfor him.
Mr. Anikin also mentioned an agreement he made with RBS WorldPay, which bounds him to cover the losses caused to the corporation. RBS representatives announced that the programmer had already fulfilled a condition of the pre-trial agreement.
In 2008 the computer database of RBS WorldPay in Atlanta (Royal Bank of Scotland branch) was hacked. The hackers copied the data on the owners of payment cards, including their PIN-codes. The stolen information enabled them to counterfeit bank cards. Thus, the money was withdrawn to these illegally emitted cards at 2.ooo cash dispensers all over the world within 12 hours. The total amount of money stolen was reported to run over 9 billion dollars.
The latest hacking was organized by four criminals: Evgeniy Anikin and Viktor Pleschuk of Russia as well as Sergey Tsurikov of Estonia and Oleg Kovelin of Moldova.
In autumn 2010 Viktor Pleschuk was judged by a Saint-Petersburg court and sentenced to 6 years on condition with four years on probation.
