In the US, a Russian was sentenced to three years in prison for cyber fraud

In New York, 55-year-old Muscovite Vladimir Zdorovenin, extradited to the United States from Switzerland and pleading guilty to cyber fraud, was sentenced to three years in prison. After serving his sentence, he will be immediately deported to Russia.

Vladimir Zdorovenin was found guilty of participating, together with his son Kirill, in a fraudulent scheme for illegally gaining access to bank accounts via the Internet. According to the prosecution, in 2004-2005. Fraudsters, while in Russia, stole from American citizens from 400,000 to 1 million dollars.

The prosecutor's office asked the court to sentence Zdorovenin to 4-5 years in prison, the defense - no more than two. As a result, Judge Paul Gardefy, who presided over the trial, sentenced him to three years in prison, writes Business Week.

The judge said that he considers it correct to give the defendant a lesser sentence than the prosecution requires, since Zdorovenin does not have sufficient technical knowledge to implement the fraudulent scheme, the publication notes.

The defendant's lawyers insisted that the organizer of all the crimes was Vladimir Zdorovenin's son, Kirill, and he himself only followed his instructions without benefiting from what he had done. The whereabouts of Kirill Zdorovenin remains unknown at this time.

Vladimir Zdorovenin was detained in March 2011 in Switzerland. In January 2012, he was extradited to New York, from which point his prison term begins. Thus, the defendant remains to spend no more than two years in prison, after which he will be deported to Russia.