Suspect in US credit card fraud case is nabbed in France

A man the United States deems one of the worst offenders among sellers of stolen financial data was arrested in Nice, France, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Vladislav Horohorin, 27, of Moscow and a dual Israeli and Ukrainian national, was arrested Saturday in Nice on a US warrant as he prepared to board a flight to Moscow, the department said.

Horohorin was indicted by a US federal grand jury in November 2009 on charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted on all counts, he could face 12 years in prison and fines of 500,000 dollars.

The United States believes the suspect is one of the founders of CarderPlanet, a criminal Internet forum on which stolen credit card data are sold.

“The network created by the founders of CarderPlanet, including Vladislav Horohorin, remains one of the most sophisticated organizations of online financial criminals in the world,” said US Secret Service Assistant Director for Investigations Michael Merritt.

“This network has been repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the international law enforcement community,” Merritt added.

Using an alias ‘BadB’ the suspect advertised the availability of stolen credit card data on web forums, and to make payments through Internet financial services including “Webmoney,” an online currency service hosted in Russia, the Justice department said.

“Cyber criminals who target US 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 A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

“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,” he added