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Russian Convicted of LinkedIn Hack Spent Years in Custody

Russian Convicted of Massive LinkedIn Hack by U.S. Jury

A Russian charged with hacking LinkedIn eight years ago was found guilty by a jury in San Francisco. It was the first trial in Northern California since the coronavirus pandemic shut Bay Area courtrooms in mid-March.

Yevgeniy Nikulin, 32, was convicted Friday of hacking LinkedIn and Dropbox in 2012, one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history when some 117 million login codes were stolen. The trial started in early March but was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and a shelter-in-place order for the Bay Area on March 16, when almost all in-person court hearings were postponed nationwide.

The case was also unusual because Nikulin has been incarcerated in various jails for years, an ongoing constitutional violation that deeply distressed U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who pushed hard to get him his day in court. The judge questioned jurors at home about their willingness to continue serving despite the risks of infection to everyone in the courtroom. Forced by circumstances to twice delay the trial, Alsup stood firm on a July 7 start. The judge, Nikulin and lawyers wore masks. Witnesses testified from behind a glass panel.

“You are the first to sit as a jury in this district, which stretches all the way to Oregon, since the pandemic,” Alsup told the group. He asked them to respond to questions from legal experts and court staff trying to learn how to conduct trials as the pandemic continues to advance.

“If any of you becomes ill in the next two weeks, and tests positive for Covid-19, let me or the clerk know so we can tell everyone else,” Alsup said. “This for your mutual protection.”

Adam Gasner, Nikulin’s lawyer, didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Arrested in the Czech Republic in 2016, Nikulin’s extradition to the U.S. angered Russia and his behavior while incarcerated in the U.S. made his own lawyers question whether he was mentally ill. For a time, at least, the Justice Department was interested in what Nikulin might know about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, though prosecutors never disclosed that they learned anything.

Nikulin is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 29. The Justice Department said he faces as long as 10 years in prison for each count of selling stolen usernames and passwords, installing malware on protected computers and as many as five years for each count of conspiracy and computer hacking. He also faces a mandatory two year sentence for identity theft, according to prosecutors.

The case is U.S. v. Nikulin, 16-cr-00440, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.