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Tag: Vladislav Horohorin

  • KABOOM! Alleged International Scammer Targeted In Secret Service Undercover Probe Extradited To United States; ‘Prosecution Demonstrates That Those Who Try To Rip Off Americans From Behind A Computer Screen Across An Ocean Will Not Escape American Justice,’ Top Federal Prosecutor Says

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog first reported on the arrest in France of alleged international fraudster Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin on Aug. 11, 2010. The arrest came as the result of an undercover operation the U.S. Secret Service conducted on online forums.

    As the Blog reported at the time, “The arrest of Vladislav Horohorin is notable on a number of levels. First, the arrest in Europe was a result of an online fraud scheme that allegedly crossed international borders and made its way to the United States, where criminal charges were filed. At the same time, the crime allegedly involved the transfer of money though international payment processors. Perhaps more than anything, however, the case against Horohorin demonstrates that the U.S. Secret Service is “plugged into” forums that promote international lawlessness. His arrest is very bad news for credit-card crooks and HYIP and autosurf Ponzi schemers — and their corrupt colleagues.”

    Today the PP Blog is reporting that the United States successfully arranged the extradition of Horohorin. His first court appearance was made in the District of Columbia, the venue from which the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case brought by the Secret Service is playing out. The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., which was instrumental in guiding the ASD case, is in charge of certain elements of the Horohorin case.

    The office of U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia also is handing elements of the Horohorin prosecution.

    The allegations in the case are alarming: “According to the indictment filed in the Northern District of Georgia, Horohorin was one of the lead cashers in an elaborate scheme in which 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards were used to withdraw more than $9 million from over 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities worldwide in a span of less than 12 hours,” the Justice Department said in a statement.  “Computer hackers broke into a credit card processor located in the Atlanta area, stole debit card account numbers, and raised the balances and withdrawal limits on those accounts while distributing the account numbers and PIN codes to lead cashers, like Hororhorin, around the world.”

    ** ______________________________________ **

    UPDATE: Alleged international credit-card fraudster Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, also known as “BadB,” is in an American jail after an undercover probe on online forums by the U.S. Secret Service and a parallel investigation by the FBI.

    Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

    “We are pleased that he has been extradited to the United States to face these criminal charges in a District of Columbia courtroom,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia.  “This prosecution demonstrates that those who try to rip off Americans from behind a computer screen across an ocean will not escape American justice.”

    Horohorin, whose age was listed as 27 after his August 2010 arrest in France on U.S. charges, also will be prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

    “International cyber criminals who target American citizens and businesses often believe they are untouchable because they are overseas,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia.  “But as this case demonstrates, we will work relentlessly with our law enforcement partners around the world to charge, find and bring those criminals to justice.”

    News of Horohorin’s extradition by France to U.S. soil occurred against the backdrop of claims by an HYIP “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that members must affirm they are not with the “government” and that the “program” is not located in any “unfriendly political jurisdictions.”

    A JSS/JBP “defender” known as “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted in March that “law enforcement agencies don’t pay attention to what’s being said on forums and blogs.” The claim was at odds with various public records that show U.S. law enforcement pays close attention to forums and Blogs and even conducts undercover operations by infiltrating forums.

    Among other things, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted he’d defend JSS/JBP’s purported operator Frederick Mann “so help me God.” The PP Blog became the subject of threats from “MoneyMakingBrain.” JSS/JBP, which uses offshore payment processors, purports to provide a return of 60 percent a month, has no known securities registrations and may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Underscoring the importance of the Horohorin arrest and extradition, Machen and Yates were joined in the announcement by the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and top officials from both the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI.

    Horohorin, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, was “one of the most notorious credit card traffickers in the world.”

    “Due to our strong relationships with our international law enforcement partners, we secured his extradition to the United States, where he now faces multiple criminal counts in two separate indictments,” Breuer said.  “We will continue to do everything we can to bring cybercriminals to justice, including those who operate beyond our borders.”

    A top U.S. Secret Service official, meanwhile, said the agency viewed the alleged Horohorin caper as an “attack” on America’s financial system.

    “The Secret Service is committed to identifying and apprehending those individuals that continue to attack American financial institutions and we will continue to work through our international and domestic law enforcement partners in order to accomplish this,” said David J. O’Connor, assistant director of investigations.

    In addition to providing security for the President of the United States, the Secret Service is in charge of protecting America’s financial infrastructure. The agency has described AdSurfDaily as a “criminal enterprise,” with the Justice Department asserting that ASD was an example of an “insidious” business that permitted fraud to spread globally.

    Just two days after Horohorin’s first appearance in a U.S. courtroom in the District of Columbia, AdSurfDaily members Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer claimed that the federal prosecutors who brought the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008 had gone shopping for a “frendly [sic] forum” in which the government could enlist “some of their Washington D.C. operatives to become members of ASD, thereby making them potential witnesses.”

    Disner and Schweitzer sued the United States in November 2011 for alleged misdeeds in the ASD case. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer asserted that undercover agents who joined ASD had a duty to inform ASD management.  The Secret Service described ASD as a massive online Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud last month, admitting ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that the company never operated legally from its inception in 2006.

    Disner and Schweitzer now are affiliates for Zeek Rewards, a “program” that plants the seed it can provide an ASD-like return of 1 percent or more per day without being a pyramid scheme and without constituting an investment opportunity. The payout Zeek plants the seed it can provide is on par with the returns advertised by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which does not disclose its base of operations.

    A top FBI official said the arrest of Horohorin showed that international agencies are working together to divorce criminals from their abilities to use computers to reach across borders to pull off egregious crimes.

    “Horohorin’s extradition to the United States demonstrates the FBI’s expertise in conducting long-term investigations into complex criminal computer intrusions, resulting in bringing the most egregious cyber criminals to justice, even from foreign shores,” said Brian D. Lamkin , special agent in charge of the Atlanta division. “The combined efforts of law enforcement agencies to include our international partners around the world will ensure this trend continues.”

    Court and other records show that Horohorin, like ASD, had a presence in both the District of Columbia and the Northern District of Georgia.

  • Justice Department Using Undercover Agents To Battle White-Collar Criminals; Top Official Says Investigative Tactics Normally Used To Prosecute Organized Crime Figures Useful In Battling Fraud Epidemic

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The remarks below are excerpted from a speech last week in New York by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. As the PP Blog has previously reported, the Justice Department and agencies such as the FBI and U.S. Secret Service have been using undercover operatives to infiltrate criminal operations and networks used by the criminals.

    One of the FBI investigations Breuer referenced was the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme in Minneapolis. The scheme consumed tens of millions of dollars, defrauding victims of at least $158 million. Many mysteries remain in the case.

    Meanwhile, undercover operatives also recently were used to expose penny-stock schemes operating in Florida.

    It also is known that the Secret Service used undercover operatives in the AdSurfDaily case, the INetGlobal case, the Regenesis 2×2 case, the Legisi case and a case involving alleged international fraudster Vladislav Horohorin, accused of using criminal forums to peddle stolen credit-card information.

    Here, now, some excerpts from Breuer’s speech . . .

    Part of Trevor Cook's stash.

    “Now, as I’m sure you know, financial criminals can be extraordinarily innovative, and they are often expert at covering their tracks. So we are always looking for creative ways to gather the evidence we need to bring financial criminals to justice. To that end, we have begun increasingly to rely, in white collar cases, on undercover investigative techniques that have perhaps been more commonly associated with the investigation of organized and violent crime.

    “As part of this effort, we have significantly strengthened the Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations (known as OEO), which is the office in the Justice Department that reviews and approves all applications for federal wiretaps from across the country. We have a dynamic new OEO Director, Paul O’Brien, and we’ve substantially increased the number of attorneys at OEO who review these wiretap applications, adding to their ranks experienced prosecutors and recent graduates who have completed federal clerkships. As a result, the number of wiretaps we authorize – in all types of cases – has gone up.

    “Let me give you just two examples of white collar cases in which we have used undercover techniques, both of which also highlight areas in which we have stepped up our white collar enforcement efforts more generally.

    “The first example is the case of Trevor Cook, which was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis. Mr. Cook is just one of dozens of individuals whom we’ve prosecuted in recent months for participating in investment fraud schemes. Over the course of several years, Mr. Cook schemed to defraud at least 1,000 people out of approximately $190 million by pretending to sell them investments in a foreign currency trading program.

    “In reality, he was pocketing the money or using it to pay off other investors. As was recently reported in the New York Times, we gathered evidence against Mr. Cook by using an undercover informant to record his transactions and conversations. [Cook] pleaded guilty earlier this year and was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison.

    “Trevor Cook is one of literally hundreds of financial criminals who have preyed upon vulnerable, individual investors and bilked them out of their savings using investment fraud schemes. And as with Mr. Cook, we have been prosecuting these people aggressively, all over the country – from New Jersey and Connecticut to Texas and California, and everywhere in between.

    “The second example comes from our enhanced efforts in the area of FCPA enforcement. Earlier this year, as I’m sure many of you know, we indicted 22 defendants in the military and law enforcement products industry for their participation in widespread schemes to bribe foreign government officials. These indictments resulted from the Department’s most extensive use ever of undercover law enforcement techniques in an FCPA investigation, and they represent the single largest prosecution of individuals in the history of our FCPA enforcement efforts. In September, one of the defendants in the case, Richard Bistrong, pleaded guilty . . .

    “Over the last 18 months, we’ve devoted significant additional resources to the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. We’ve recruited talent not only from white shoe law firms, but also from a deep pool of prosecutors around the country who bring with them extensive experience in prosecuting everyone from violent mobsters to dangerous terrorists. We are now bringing that extraordinary talent and experience to bear on prosecuting financial fraudsters.”

    See related story on alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme.

    See related story on alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme.

    See related story on Matt Gagnon and Mazu.com.

  • BULLETIN: Ponzi Scheme Figure William Walters To Be Extradited From Argentina, FBI, Colorado AG Say; Another ‘Offshore’ Myth Exposed

    William Walters: Extradited from Argentina to face Ponzi charges in Colorado.

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 9:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) William L. Walters has been extradited to the United States from Argentina to face Ponzi scheme charges in Colorado, prosecutors announced.

    “This extradition is the culmination of years of work and cooperation between my office and the FBI,” said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. “In this case, justice delayed will not result in justice being denied. We look forward to presenting our case against Mr. Walters and securing justice for his victims.”

    Walters, 45, fled the United States prior to being indicted in 2007. Interpol “flagged” his passport, and the FBI traced him to Argentina, prosecutors said.

    The Walters’ case exposes a common myth on HYIP and autosurf Ponzi boards that “offshore” locations insulate Ponzi schemes from prosecution and that the schemers themselves can avoid arrest by operating outside the United States or fleeing from the United States to a foreign country after a scheme is exposed.

    “Pursuant to the FBI’s Project Welcome Home, the Denver Division was able to work closely with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to insure that William Walters was returned to Colorado for prosecution,” said James H. Davis, FBI special agent in charge. “This is yet another example of law enforcement cooperation in Colorado and our commitment to pursue fugitives from justice, even if they attempt to flee outside of the United States.”

    Walters is accused of operating a “day-trading” Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $23 million from investors in Colorado, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

    He operated companies known as Samurai Capital and Mana Trading Inc. A court in Argentina approved the extradition to the United States.

    Read the Walters’ indictment.

    Read more about the FBI’s “Project Welcome Home.”

    Read about the U.S. Secret Service case against Vladislav Horohorin, who was arrested in France earlier this month after undercover agents infiltrated an online crime forum.

    Horohorin allegedly operated an overseas fraud scheme targeted at U.S. residents.

    Court records show that the Secret Service infiltrated the AdSurfDaily autosurf by employing undercover agents. Records also show that the agency employed undercover operatives in the investigation of the INetGlobal autosurf.

    In the INetGlobal case, records show that undercover agents attended an INetGlobal function in New York earlier this year. The Secret Service said one of its agents was introduced to INetGlobal by an ASD member.

    In the ASD case, the Secret Service said it believed that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was planning to flee the United States prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in August 2008 — amid Ponzi allegations.

  • KABOOM! Vladislav Horohorin Arrested In France On U.S. Warrant After Undercover Operation On Forums; Secret Service Will Traverse The Globe ‘In Pursuit Of Online Criminals,’ Agency Says

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The arrest of Vladislav Horohorin is notable on a number of levels. First, the arrest in Europe was a result of an online fraud scheme that allegedly crossed international borders and made its way to the United States, where criminal charges were filed.  At the same time, the crime allegedly involved the transfer of money though international payment processors. Perhaps more than anything, however, the case against Horohorin  demonstrates that the U.S. Secret Service is “plugged into” forums that promote international lawlessness. His arrest is very bad news for credit-card crooks and HYIP and autosurf Ponzi schemers — and their corrupt colleagues.

    Here, now, the story on the arrest of Horohorin . . .

    A credit-card trafficker based in Russia has been arrested in France on U.S. charges after the U.S. Secret Service infiltrated an online scheme operating internationally through Internet forums, the Justice Department said.

    Undercover Secret Service agents “negotiated the sale of numerous stolen credit card dumps,” the Justice Department said.

    Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, was arrested in Nice.  He was indicted under seal in November 2009 on U.S. charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The seal was lifted today.

    Authorities said they believed he was “one of the most prolific sellers of stolen data” in the world, noting Horohorin was known in web forums as “BadB.” He lived in Moscow, and was a citizen of both Israel and the Ukraine.

    The Justice Department revealed today that the U.S. Secret Service used an “online undercover identity” to interact with operators of the international scheme, which featured the sale of stolen credit-card information known as “dumps.”

    Payments were transferred through online currency services, including a service known as “Webmoney” that was hosted in Russia, the Justice Department said.

    “Cyber criminals who target U.S citizens should not fool themselves into believing they can elude justice simply because they commit crimes outside of our borders,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.  “As this and so many other cases demonstrate, working hand in hand with our partners around the globe, we will do everything in our power to bring these criminals to the United States to answer for their alleged crimes.”

    Horohorin was arrested Aug. 7 as he attempted to board a flight to Moscow. He will be extradited to the United States, the Justice Department said.

    A top Secret Service official said the agency would be relentless in its pursuit of cyber-criminals.

    “This arrest is an illustration of the success that comes from international law enforcement and private sector partnerships and confirms the Secret Service commitment to traversing the globe in pursuit of online criminals,” said Michael Merritt, assistant director for investigations.

    In August 2008, Merritt was among the officials who announced the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    Assisting the Secret Service in the Horohorin probe were the French Police Nationale Aux Frontiers, the Netherlands Police Agency National Crime Squad High Tech Crime Unit, and the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office.

    Horohorin was one of the founders of a network known as CarderPlanet, a forum through which criminals sold stolen financial data to other criminals.

    Using his “BadB” forum identity, Horohorin “advertised the availability of stolen credit card information through these web forums, and directed purchasers to create accounts at “dumps.name,” a fully-automated dumps vending website operated by Horohorin and hosted outside the United States,” the Justice Department said.

    “The website was designed to assist in the exchange of funds for the stolen credit card information,” the Justice Department said.