MOSCOW, January 12 - RAPSI. Russian citizen Oleg Nikolayenko, who has been charged in the United States with organizing a massive botnet, may plead guilty at a hearing on February 1, according to the court materials made available to the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

"The parties are doing their utmost to settle all the issues before the court starts hearing the case on its merits," the documents read.

Nikolayenko was arrested at a car show in Las Vegas last November 2010. The Federal Security Service said he is the mastermind of the Mega-D botnet. According to the court, Nikolayenko forged information in e-mails and sent them to recipients from January 2007 until November 2010.

The U.S. Attorney Office initially said the Mega-D botnet had over half a million zombies and could send over 10 billion spam messages a day. U.S. media called Nikolayenko the "spam king."

The documents submitted to the court maintain that the Mega-D botnet is the largest botnet in the world, having a 32-percent share of global spam circulation.
Nikolayenko denied the allegations.

His defense attorney Arkady Bukh declined to comment. He said earlier that his client is in a poor mental state.