Peter Levashov

Last updated
Peter Levashov
Петр Юрьевич Левашов
Peter Severa Levashov.png
Born
Peter Yuryevich Levashov

1980 (age 43–44) [1]
Russia
NationalityRussian
Other namesPetr Levashov, Peter Severa, Petr Severa, Sergey Astakhov [2]
OccupationSpammer
Known foralleged operation of the Kelihos botnet
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Peter Levashov is a Russian spammer and virus creator. He was described by The Spamhaus Project as one of the longest functioning criminal spam operators on the internet. In July 2021, a US federal judge overruled government recommendations for a 12 to 14.5 year prison sentence, giving a sentence instead of time served, with three years of supervision. Levashov remains in the US, having started a business called SeveraDAO.

Contents

Background

Levashov, born in 1980, graduated in 1997 from the Saint Petersburg High School No. 30 of Math and Science. He started a bulk-mailing service, registered to his own name, in 2002. [1]

Levashov (as "Peter Severa, age unknown, of Russia") is alleged to have worked with US spammer Alan Ralsky, who was indicted in 2008 and later jailed for spam email promotions for pump and dump" schemes. [1] [3]

Levashov was described by Spamhaus as "[o]ne of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet," who collaborated with many other Eastern European and U.S. based botnet spammers, as well as American spammer Alan Ralsky. [4] Peter Levashov was arrested by Spanish officials while in Barcelona, at the request of the United States Department of Justice. [5] He was suspected by the United States of being the kingpin behind the Kelihos botnet and was extradited to the United States, arriving on 2 February 2018. Russia had filed a competing extradition request, but the Spanish high court in October 2017 approved Levashov’s extradition to the U.S., rejecting the Russian counterclaim. [6] [7]

Criminal case

The case was U.S. v. Levashov, 17-mj-448, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut (Bridgeport)., [8] assigned to Robert N. Chatigny, Senior United States District Judge in Hartford. [9] Levashov initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. [10] According to his lawyer, Petya [Pyotr] Levashov was detained in a Bridgeport, Connecticut prison until at least 5 February 2018. [11] As of July 2021, he had been out of prison on electronic monitoring since January 2020. [12] Levashov ultimately "pleaded guilty to one count of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, one count of conspiracy, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft" according to the U.S. Department of Justice [13] and confirmed by media reports. [12]

An affidavit unsealed on February 5, 2018, showed Apple’s unexpected role in bringing Levashov to justice. He allegedly ran the Kelihos botnet under the alias “Severa,” renting out access to spammers and other cybercriminals. Despite Levashov’s significant efforts at anonymity, court records show that federal agents had been surveilling his iCloud account since May 20, 2016, funneling back crucial information that may have led to his arrest. [14]

According to RFE/RL, which cited Levashov's testimony on behalf of the US government in the June, 2021 court case against Oleg Koshkin, Levashov cooperated with the FBI during his imprisonment in the hope of a sentence reduction. [15] Levashov was released from jail on bond in January 2020 and remained free until his sentencing 18 months later. [15]

Although prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of at least 12 years, Levashov was released in July, 2021, with federal judge Robert Chatigny saying that the 33 months he had already spent in prison was "a long time." [16] [17] Levashov was additionally ordered to serve 3 years of supervised release. [12]

Subsequent career

Since then, Levashov has been working on a new venture, which he calls SeveraDAO, whose goals include teaching computers how to pick stocks. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Alan Ralsky was a convicted American fraudster, best known for his activities as a spammer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Spamhaus Project</span> Organization targetting email spammers

The Spamhaus Project is an international organisation based in the Principality of Andorra, founded in 1998 by Steve Linford to track email spammers and spam-related activity. The name spamhaus, a pseudo-German expression, was coined by Linford to refer to an internet service provider, or other firm, which spams or knowingly provides service to spammers.

Leonid Aleksandrovitch Kuvayev, who usually goes by the name of Leo, is a Russian/American spammer believed to be the ringleader of one of the world's biggest spam gangs. In 2005, he and six business partners were fined $37 million as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts attorney general. It was found that they were responsible for millions of unsolicited e-mails per day. According to Spamhaus he could be the "Pharmamaster" spammer who performed a denial-of-service attack (DDoS) against the BlueSecurity company. Kuvayev is also behind countless phishing and money mule recruiting sites hosted on botnets. He has been called a "spam czar", and a "virtual criminal".

Operation: Bot Roast is an operation by the FBI to track down bot herders, crackers, or virus coders who install malicious software on computers through the Internet without the owners' knowledge, which turns the computer into a zombie computer that then sends out spam to other computers from the compromised computer, making a botnet or network of bot infected computers. The operation was launched because the vast scale of botnet resources poses a threat to national security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfredo Beltrán Leyva</span> Convicted Mexican drug lord

Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, commonly referred to by his alias El Mochomo, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He was one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords. Beltrán Leyva was responsible for smuggling multi-ton shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States from Mexico and South America between the 1990s and 2000s. He worked alongside his brothers Héctor, Carlos, and Arturo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oleg Nikolaenko</span> Russian computer criminal (born 1987)

Oleg Yegorovich Nikolaenko is a Russian computer criminal who created the Mega-D botnet, violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Federal investigators believe his activities may have been responsible for as much as one third of the world's electronic spam.

The Kelihos botnet, also known as Hlux, is a botnet mainly involved in spamming and the theft of bitcoins.

Marcel Lehel Lazăr, known as Guccifer, is a Romanian hacker responsible for high-level computer security breaches in the U.S. and Romania. Lazăr targeted celebrities, Romanian and U.S. government officials, and other prominent persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Seleznev</span> Russian computer hacker

Roman Valerevich Seleznev, also known by his hacker name Track2, is a Russian computer hacker. Seleznev was indicted in the United States in 2011, and was convicted of hacking into servers to steal credit-card data. His activities are estimated to have caused more than $169 million in damages to businesses and financial institutions. Seleznev was arrested on July 5, 2014, and was sentenced to 27 years in prison for wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer, and identity theft.

Arkady L. Bukh is an American criminal defense attorney. He is best known for representing Azamat Tazhayakov, a college student charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice with the intent to impede a terrorism investigation in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carding (fraud)</span> Crime involving the trafficking of credit card data

Carding is a term of the trafficking and unauthorized use of credit cards. The stolen credit cards or credit card numbers are then used to buy prepaid gift cards to cover up the tracks. Activities also encompass exploitation of personal data, and money laundering techniques. Modern carding sites have been described as full-service commercial entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladislav Horohorin</span> Hacker and credit card trafficer

Vladislav Horohorin,, alias BadB, is a former hacker and international credit card trafficker who was convicted of wire fraud and served a seven-year prison sentence.

Marcus Hutchins, also known online as MalwareTech, is a British computer security researcher known for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack. He is employed by cybersecurity firm Kryptos Logic. Hutchins is from Ilfracombe in Devon.

Alexander Vinnik is a Russian computer expert. From 2011 to 2017, he worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange.

Hamza Bendelladj is an Algerian cybercriminal and carder who goes by the code name BX1 and has been nicknamed as the "Smiling Hacker". Bendelladj is a polyglot, speaking 5 languages often used for profit in view of his linguistic knowledge, in order to extract money from banks and other financial institutions almost everywhere in the world.

<i>United States v. Guzmán</i> El Chapos trial

United States of America v. Joaquín Guzmán Loera was a federal criminal court case against Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts against him in Brooklyn, New York. His charges included drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder. His defense asserted that he was not the organized crime leader that the prosecution claimed. The trial, often characterized as a trial of the century, began on November 5, 2018, and lasted until February 12, 2019, when the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts. He was sentenced on July 17, 2019 to a prison term of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yevgeniy Nikulin</span> Russian computer hacker (born 1987)

Yevgeniy Alexandrovich Nikulin is a Russian computer hacker. He was arrested in Prague in October 2016, and was charged with the hacking and data theft of several U.S. technology companies. In September 2020, he was sentenced to 88 months in prison.

David Benjamin Schrooten is a Dutch computer hacker also known as Fortezza and Xakep. In 2012, he was arrested in Romania at the request of the United States Secret Service and extradited to Seattle, Washington. Here he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, primarily for his role in trafficking credit cards he obtained by hacking other hackers. By doing so, he caused approximately 63 million dollars in damages.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Russian man wanted by US alleged to be prolific spam master". Financial Post. Associated Press. Jul 28, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2023. Born in 1980, Levashov studied at High School No. 30 , one of the first schools in the Soviet Union to specialize in computer programming
  2. ↑ "Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet". The Hacker News. September 13, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2023. Levashov, also known by many online aliases including Peter Severa, Petr Levashov, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, has admitted of operating several botnets, including the Storm, Waledac and Kelihos botnets, since the late 1990s until he was arrested in April 2017.
  3. ↑ "Alan Ralsky, Ten Others, Indicted In International Illegal Spamming And Stock Fraud Scheme". U.S. Department of Justice. 2008-01-03. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  4. ↑ "Peter Severa / Peter Levashov". The Spamhaus Project. The Spamhaus Project. Retrieved April 29, 2023. One of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet. Works with many other Eastern Euro and US based botnet spammers. Was a partner of American spammer Alan Ralsky.
  5. ↑ Kramer, Andrew. "Spain Arrests Russian Thought to Be Kingpin of Computer Spam". New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2017. Spamhaus, a group that tracks spammers, has for years listed Peter Severa as among the top 10 perpetrators in the world, and has identified him as Mr. Levashov.
  6. ↑ "A New Russian Ploy: Competing Extradition Requests". The New York Times. December 20, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2023. At the agency's request, Spanish security officers in April arrested the man, Pyotr Y. Levashov...But then the Russian authorities sprang a trap of their own, filing an extradition request with the Spanish authorities for a crime they said Mr. Levashov had committed in Russia years ago.
  7. ↑ "Russian Extradited to U.S. to Face Cybercrime Charges Pleads Not Guilty". The Wall Street Journal. February 2, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2023. A Russian programmer who had been arrested in Spain in a high-profile case that pitted the U.S. against Russia on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of running a vast network of computers for criminal purposes.
  8. ↑ "Russian Spammer Claiming Kremlin Ties Is in U.S. Facing Feds". Bloomberg. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "Alleged Operator of Kelihos Botnet Extradited From Spain". www.justice.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  10. ↑ "Russian accused of running spam network extradited to US". Deutsche Welle. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  11. ↑ "Russian programmer charged with hacking in US says he's not guilty". CrimeRussia. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 "U.S. Judge Sentences Notorious Russian Spammer To Time Served". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 26 July 2021.
  13. ↑ U.S. Attorney's Office District of Connecticut (14 December 2018). "Multi Victim Case Notification". Justice.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  14. ↑ "Feds tracked down Russian spam kingpin with help from his iCloud account". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  15. 1 2 "How A Convicted Russian Cybercriminal Made $6,000 A Month Helping The FBI". RFERL. December 22, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2022. Levashov was released from custody on bond in January 2020, pending his final sentencing, which came 18 months later. In a follow-up exchange with RFE/RL, Levashov contradicted his earlier court testimony, saying "the U.S. government never paid my living expenses." He said his family had been paying his expenses. But he also confirmed he received some money for computer work he said he did for the government in Connecticut.
  16. 1 2 "This Infamous Russian Hacker Wants Your Crypto Investment". Time Magazine. December 23, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2023. Prosecutors asked the court to send Levashov to prison for at least 12 years. But in July[2021], Judge Robert Chatigny sentenced Levashov to the 33 months he had already served in jail, plus three years of supervised release.
  17. ↑ "Federal Judge Sentences Russian Spammer to Time Served". Courthouse News Service. July 20, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2023. On Tuesday afternoon, saying he was impressed with Levashov's "prompt and complete acceptance of responsibility," U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny sentenced the Russian national to time served. "Thirty-three months is a long time and I'm sure it was especially difficult for you considering you were away from your wife and child, away from home," Chatigny said.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.