France extradites Russian fraudster to the US

France has extradited to the United States a 27-year-old Russian alleged to be one of the world's most prolific traffickers in stolen credit card information, the Justice Department said.

'BadB' as portrayed in a promotional cartoon that popped up notifying victims their credit card details had been compromised Sreen capture/YouTube

Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, aka "BadB" of Moscow, appeared before a federal judge in the United States capital on Friday and faces multiple US criminal charges, the Justice Department said in a statement.

French law enforcement, working with US agents, identified Horohorin in Nice, France, and arrested him in August 2010 as he was trying to board a flight to Moscow.

He was extradited to the US on 6 June, and arraigned before a judge in Washington the following day, read the statement issued late Friday.

"Our indictment alleges that this young man used his technological savvy to profit by selling stolen credit card information over the Internet on a massive scale," said US Attorney Ronald Machen.

"This prosecution demonstrates that those who try to rip off Americans from behind a computer screen across an ocean will not escape American justice."

Horohorin, a citizen of Israel, Russia and Ukraine, allegedly used online criminal forums to sell stolen credit card information to online purchasers around the world.

He is also charged with being "one of the lead cashers in an elaborate scheme in which 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards were used to withdraw more than seven million euro from over 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities worldwide in a span of less than 12 hours," the Justice Department said.

Horohorin faces 62 years prison if convicted on all five charges contained in two indictments, according to the Justice Department.