Joshua Aaron, the US fugitive suspected of carrying out the largest ever cyber attack on Wall Street, has returned to the US to face trial after hiding out in Russia for more than 18 months.
Aaron was arrested upon his return at JFK airport in New York on Wednesday and then pleaded not guilty to 16 criminal charges in a Manhattan court.
The 32 year old, along with two Israeli co-defendants, is accused of orchestrating what a US prosecuting attorney described as "securities fraud on cyber steroids" and could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.
Between 2007 and 2015, Aaron and his alleged accomplices are accused of stealing data from more than 100 million customer accounts from financial institutions including JP Morgan, E*Trade, Fidelity Investments and Scottrade and then using the information to engage in fraudulent share deals that raised hundreds of millions of dollars.
The voluntary return of Aaron is the latest episode in cyber-related judicial issues between the US and Russia, following the claim by US intelligence services that Russian hackers tried to infliuence the recent US election. Furthermore, court papers link Aaron and the Wall Street hack to an unidentified Russian-speaking hacker.