New Delhi: A Ukrainian national, wanted by
the US in connection with a case of global computer hacking
and credit card fraud ring, was arrested in the capital soon
after his arrival at the IGI airport, officials said today.
Sergey V Storchak, holding Ukrainian passport AX-332255,
was taken into custody by the CISF from the aircraft on May 8
when he arrived here on a Jetlite flight S2-120 from Goa and
handed over to police. He was to leave for Istanbul early next
morning.
He was produced before a Magistrate on May 9 and sent to
judicial custody till May 22.
A statement from the CBI said that his arrest was
particularly significant as his extradition and prosecution
would have been very unlikely if he reached his final
destination of Ukraine.
"The concerned officials of US Embassy in New Delhi have
been suitably briefed as per Extradition Treaty for
procurement of `Extradition Documents` so that Ministry of
External Affairs could set up the Extradition Court," the
statement said.
The FBI had issued a look out circular on Storchak who,
along with ten others, was accused of stealing and selling
more than four crore credit and debit card numbers and the
gang`s operations spanned the US, eastern Europe and Asia.
A criminal case was filed in the US against Storchak and
others for conspiracy to traffic in unauthorised access
devices. The US agencies, which pegged the losses to be over
USD 1.7 crore, found over 16,000 stolen card numbers from the
email of Storchak.
The US agency had informed the CBI about Storchak`s
presence in the country and that he was likely to reach the
capital from Goa, officials said.
"The CBI along with Delhi Police and FBI officials waited
at the terminal, while a team of CISF officials went inside
the aircraft, escorted Storchak out and handed him over to
CBI," a senior CISF official said.
Storchak had boarded the Jetlite flight from Goa at 6.45
pm on May 8 and was scheduled to reach Delhi at 10.55 pm.
He was identified with the help of a photo provided by the
FBI, which was handed over to the CISF personnel.
Eleven people from US and China and three from former
Soviet Republics were allegedly involved in what was dubbed as
the largest hacking and identity theft by the US justice
department.
They allegedly stole more than four crore credit and debit
card numbers and sold them to criminals in the US and Europe.
The department had charged them with conspiracy, computer
intrusion, internet fraud and identity theft.
PTI
