By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Ukrainian hacker was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a notorious cybercrime group that stole millions of credit and debit card details from across the United States, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
Andrii Kolpakov, 33, was also ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, the department said in a press release.
Kolpakov’s lawyer, Vadim Glozman, said his client was disappointed with the sentence but respected the judge’s decision.
He said Kolpakov – who has already spent three years in custody after being nabbed by police in Spain in 2018 – planned to return to Ukraine after serving out the remainder of his sentence.
Kolpakov was sentenced in the Western District of Washington. Glozman said that his client was currently in custody in Washington state.
Kolpakov’s gang – dubbed “FIN7” – is among the most prolific cybercriminal enterprises in existence. A memo drawn up by U.S. prosecutors said that “no hacking group epitomizes the industrialization of cybercrime better,” alleging that the gang had over 70 people organized into discrete departments and teams, including a unit devoted to crafting malicious software and another unit compose of hackers who exploited victims’ machines.
For cover, FIN7 masqueraded as cybersecurity company called “Combi Security” which claimed to be involved in penetration testing.
Prosecutors say Kolpakov worked for FIN7 from at least April 2016 until his arrest in June 2018 and rose to become a mid-level manager, directing “a small team of hackers” tasked with breaching victims’ computer systems and training new recruits to use FIN7’s malicious tools.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Alistair Bell)
