MOSCOW, July 24 (RAPSI) - US officials did not provide Russia with information on the activity of the Russian citizen who was charged with cyber fraud before his arrest, according to Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s envoy for human rights, democracy and supremacy of law.
Yesterday, the prosecutor’s office in Manhattan brought cyber fraud charges against several defendants, including three Russian citizens. One of them is Vadim Polyakov. Investigators claim that in March 2013, the offenders hacked into over 1,600 accounts on StubHub, a site that sells tickets to events, and accessed the credit card data of the website’s users. Using this data, the hackers bought over 3,500 tickets, including tickets for Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake concerts, and sent them to the three other defendants, US citizens, for resale. Polyakov was arrested on July 3 in the Spanish city of Salou and transferred to Madrid at the request of US officials.
“Russian investigative agencies did not receive any prior notice regarding the activity of a Russian national [before the arrest]… Our stance remains the same. We will insist that the US refrain from detaining Russian nationals in third countries on classified arrest warrants and charges without first notifying Russia. We believe it is a violation (by the US) of obligations under the (mutual legal assistance) treaty,” Dolgov explained.
He stressed that Russia is insisting that Polyakov’s rights be strictly observed and “naturally, our current goal is his soonest return to his home country.”