Russian Spammer Claiming Kremlin Ties Is in U.S. Facing Feds

(Bloomberg) -- A Russian programmer who claimed he worked for Vladimir Putin’s ruling party arrived in the U.S. Friday after Spanish authorities extradited him to face cybercrime charges in Connecticut.

Peter Levashov is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Prosecutors have been pursuing Levashov, who they say operated under names including Peter Severa, for at least a decade. He’s among the top 10 worst spammers in the world, according to The Spamhaus Project, which tracks spam-related cyber threats.

Levashov had resisted extradition since April, after he was arrested in Barcelona. A U.S. indictment unsealed that month accuses him of using malicious software to hijack computers worldwide to send emails advertising fake drugs, pump-and-dump penny-stock schemes and other frauds.

At a hearing in Spain in September, Levashov claimed he was a military officer who worked for a decade for Russia’s ruling United Russia party, collected information on opposition parties and “conveyed it to people who needed to know,” RIA Novosti reported at the time. United Russia’s press office said that the claim was “nonsense” and Levashov was unknown to the political party. The extradition was approved in October by Spain’s National Court.

Russia had opposed moving Levashov to the U.S. and filed a competing extradition request, for an alleged crime that occurred in his native country.

The extradition “demonstrates the department’s steadfast commitment to working with our international law enforcement partners to identify cybercriminals and hold them accountable for their conduct,” Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said in a statement.

U.S. prosecutors have said the case isn’t related to the alleged hacking of the 2016 election by Russia.

Kelihos Botnet

Prosecutors in Bridgeport, Connecticut, say Levashov used his Kelihos botnet to harvest personal information, user names and passwords. He’s accused of wire fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.

“During any 24-hour period, the Kelihos botnet was used to generate and distribute more than 2,500 unsolicited spam emails that advertised various criminal schemes, including deceptively promoting stocks in order to fraudulently increase their price,” the Justice Department said in April.

Spanish police said in a statement that they extradited a Russian citizen. They didn’t give the man’s name, but said he’ll face the same charges Levashov faces and spoke of Kelihos. Thomas Carson, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Durham in Connecticut, declined to comment.

The case is U.S. v. Levashov, 17-mj-448, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut (Bridgeport).

--With assistance from David Voreacos

To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Katz in Paris at akatz5@bloomberg.net, Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.net.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.