A Russian hacker who caused the collapse of one US company and racked up $4 million in fraudulent spending on fake debit cards has received a six-year jail sentence.
Mikhail Konstantinov Malykhin used login credentials supplied to him by another hacker to illegally access the online software platform of a healthcare benefits administration firm.
Once in the system, Malykhin reactivated dormant dependent care accounts and issued debit cards from these accounts with limits of up to $5 million. Malykhin also issued debit cards linked to a Colorado company that later went out of business as the result of the losses suffered through the hack.
The re-activated cards were sent to conspirators around the world, including to people in the United States and Russia, where they were used to purchase big-ticket items at retail stores, such as Best Buy and Apple in the Los Angeles area.
In addition to the 70-month sentence, Malykhin was ordered to pay $4,131,731 in restitution and to forfeit approximately $1.3 million in cash and more than $22,000 in gift cards previously seized by FBI agents from safe deposit boxes, as well as several gold bars, nearly $30,000 that Malykhin sent to a plastic surgery center, and a 1966 Ford Mustang.