Security News > 2021 > July > Spam Kingpin Peter Levashov Gets Time Served

A federal judge in Connecticut today handed down a sentence of time served to spam kingpin Peter "Severa" Levashov, a prolific purveyor of malicious and junk email, and the creator of malware strains that infected millions of Microsoft computers globally.

A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, the 40-year-old Levashov operated under the hacker handle "Severa." Over the course of his 15-year cybercriminal career, Severa would emerge as a pivotal figure in the cybercrime underground, serving as the primary moderator of a spam community that spanned multiple top Russian cybercrime forums.

The company would later do the same to the Kelihos botnet, a global spam machine which shared a great deal of code with Waledac and infected more than 110,000 Microsoft Windows PCs. Levashov was arrested in 2017 while in Barcelona, Spain with his family.

In fighting his extradition to the United States, Levashov famously told the media, "If I go to the U.S., I will die in a year." But a few months after his extradition, Levashov would plead guilty to four felony counts, including intentional damage to protected computers, conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

His attorney read a lengthy statement explaining that Levashov got into spamming as a way to provide for his family, and that over a period of many years that business saw him supporting countless cybercrime operations.

Judge Chatigny said he had concerns that "The total offense level does overstate the seriousness of Mr. Levashov's crimes and his criminal culpability," and said he believed Levashov was unlikely to offend again.

News URL

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/07/spam-kingpin-peter-levashov-gets-time-served/