[ISN] Bloomberg extortionist jailed for 4 years

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 01:16:18 PDT

  • Next message: InfoSec News: "[ISN] Windows & .NET Magazine Security UPDATE--July 2, 2003"

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/31517.html
    
    By John Leyden
    Posted: 02/07/2003 
    
    A Kazakhstan man was jailed yesterday to 51 months in prison following
    his conviction in February for an attempt to extort $200,000 from
    Michael Bloomberg, founder of the Bloomberg financial news service.
    
    Oleg Zezev (AKA Oleg Zezov), 29, was convicted of breaking into
    Bloomberg's computer system, and then emailing Bloomberg founder
    Michael Bloomberg threatening that the financial news service's
    reputation would be put at risk if he wasn't paid. The threat was made
    in March 2000, prior to Bloomberg's election as New York's mayor in
    2001.
    
    After receiving this threat, Bloomberg contacted the FBI and arranged
    to meet Zezev and alleged accomplice Igor Yarimika in London, where
    the pair was arrested in an FBI sting operation. The two men were
    subsequently extradited from the UK to face trial in the US.
    
    Zezev was convicted in a high profile trial, during which Mayor
    Bloomberg testified for the prosecution. The case against Yarimika was
    dismissed due to insufficient evidence, after a trial judge ruled that
    key prosecution evidence was inadmissible.
    
    Yesterday US District Judge Kimba Wood sentenced Zezev to jail for 51
    months, one of the longest sentences ever imposed in a computer crime
    case.
    
    "As the government has pointed out, your crime was a very serious one
    because of its threat to international commerce and the integrity of
    data that the financial community relies upon to do its business,"  
    said Judge Wood.
    
    
    
    -
    ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org
    
    To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn'
    in the BODY of the mail.
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Jul 03 2003 - 03:36:41 PDT