Russian programmer detained in Spain was 'King of Spam'
Russian programmer Pyotr Levashov, detained in Spain at the request of the United States, is accused of sending spam using a botnet.
This was noted in an official statement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
It follows from the document that Levashov was detained during an operation intended to stop the activity of a botnet called Kelihos. According to the Department, the programmer had been running it since 2010. “On April 8, 2017, we started the extraordinary task of blocking malicious domains associated with the Kelihos botnet to prohibit further infections,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Marlin Ritzman. “This case demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to finding and eradicating cyber threats no matter where they are in the world.”
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice also reported that the botnet Kelihos "generated and distributed huge amounts of unwanted e-mails", in particular those that contained advertisements for counterfeit medicines.
According to information from the British organization Spamhaus, which traces the spread of spam, a certain Peter Levashov takes seventh place in the top ten world spammers. The organization calls him one of the "kings of spam."
On April 9, Levashov's wife reported that he was detained while on holiday in Barcelona. The consular section of the Russian Embassy in Spain confirmed this information. The programmer's wife said that Russians were suspected of involvement in hacker attacks during the presidential elections in the United States. She also said that the court in Barcelona held a Skype meeting with the Madrid court, during which it was decided to place the programmer in custody.
In January 2017 another Russian programmer, Stanislav Lisov, was detained in Barcelona. It was reported that he was detained at the request of the United States on suspicion of committing hacker attacks. According to the Vice President of the Russian division of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Alexander Ionov, Lisov faces 35 years in prison in the U.S.