Mihai Paunescu, aka Virus, Faces 3 Criminal Counts in Court docket
A Romanian man accused of handling the digital infrastructure driving a banking Trojan that stole tens of thousands and thousands of bucks now eventually faces trial in the United States following his extradition from South The us.

Federal authorities yesterday presented Mihai Ionut Paunescu, aka Virus, in Manhattan federal courtroom a year after Colombian authorities detained the fugitive in a Bogota airport. Romanian authorities arrested Paunescu in 2012 but unveiled him on bail. A U.S. grand jury returned a 3-count indictment towards him in 2013. If convicted on all rates – conspiracy to dedicate lender fraud, wire fraud and laptop or computer intrusion – the 37-calendar year-aged faces a highest of 60 years imprisonment.

Paunescu allegedly presented cybercriminals so-identified as “bulletproof web hosting,” together with a command-and-handle server for the Gozi malware that during the early 2000s infected additional than 1 million desktops. Among the them ended up 60 personal computers belonging to NASA, as a result of which robbers stole about $19,000.

His alleged company design was to hire servers and community connectivity from respectable providers and sublease the infrastructure to other cybercriminals. Other malware Paunescu is accused of facilitating contain the Zeus and SpyEye Trojans. He also allegedly authorized his legal clientele to execute DDoS assaults by web hosting the BlackEnergy bot toolkit.

Paunescu held a databases to handle his server subleasing operation that included labels these types of as “zeus 100%SBL” and “100%SBL malware,” prosecutors say.

According to the indictment, the defendant assisted purchasers evade detection by legislation enforcement organizations by scanning lists of suspicious or untrustworthy IP addresses managed by the Spamhaus Venture. In case of a match, it suggests he would relocate his customers’ information to a distinctive network and IP deal with – and occasionally to a whole new country.

The circumstance versus Paunescu has been ongoing for about a ten years. It “demonstrates that we will get the job done with our legislation enforcement companions in this article and abroad to go after cybercriminals who target Us residents, no matter how lengthy it requires,” claims U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York, where by Paunescu is predicted to stand trial. A demo date has not been set yet, but the case has been assigned to District Decide Lorna G. Schofield.

Other Conspirators

Two persons with whom Paunescu’s allegedly conspired have presently absent through the American judicial system (see: Did Feds Defuse Blitzkrieg on Banking institutions?).

A federal decide in 2016 sentenced Gozi creator Nikita Kuzmin to 37 months of time served immediately after the Russian nationwide pleaded guilty and cooperated with U.S. officers. A decide purchased him to spend $6.9 million in restitution (see: Gozi Creator Sentenced for Lender Attacks).
Deniss Čalovskis, aka Miami, a Latvian nationwide who enhanced Gozi by developing web injects, pleaded responsible in 2015 to a one rely of conspiracy to commit computer system intrusion. He been given a 21-thirty day period sentence in January 2016.