MOSCOW, August 5 (RAPSI) – Distinct Media Ltd. claims to be defrauded and alleges that Russian programmer Lev Shutov with unnamed accomplices might be implicated in the fraud, according to court records obtained by RAPSI on Friday. 

Jersey-based Distinct Media Ltd. operates dozens of websites, including ones that provide services in the United States. In March of 2009 Distinct Media, which is making its revenue from advertisement published on its websites, entered a pay-per-click agreement with Yahoo, which provides ad inventory to Distinct Media on behalf of advertisers. Agreement specified that cheating with amount of clicks by technical means is explicitly prohibited. In November of 2014 Yahoo reported suspicious activity with advertising, which included sporadic redirects to third party websites like eBay and Amazon. These redirects were caused by a program that appeared on servers of Distinct Media. As the company failed to identify those behind the malpractice at that time, it "was forced to pay Yahoo significant amounts for what Yahoo asserted to be a breach of the Agreement," cort records read.

Notably, in 2009 Distinct Media contacted CPS Labs registered in Russia that provided software engineering services. Shutov, a resident of Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, was among those who worked for the company’s projects at the time.

Distinct Media claim that Shutov was involved in the alleged fraud and received money for redirecting Internet users to eBay and Amazon. Shutov received over $324,000 from eBay in the period between August of 2013 and December of 2014 transferring approximately 20 percent of those payments to an alleged accomplice, according to Distinct Media.

The complaint against unnamed co-conspirators was filed in July of 2015 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint was amended in March, with Shutov being named a co-defendent.

Distinct Media filed a motion in June for the default judgment. The court is waiting for the company to provide additional briefing supporting its motion as it received a letter from Shutov’s attorney in Russia objecting to the court's jurisdiction over Shutov.

RAPSI has yet to obtain comments from the parties to the case.