Czech Court Approves Extradition of LinkedIn Hacker but Doesn't Say to Which Country

[CrAKeN]

 

A Czech judge ruled yesterday that Yevgeny Nikulin, a Russian national accused of crimes in both the US and Russia, can be extradited based on the current charges.

 

The court didn't specify to which country, and the decision now rests with Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikan.

 

Nikulin was arrested while on vacation in Prague in October 2016, based on an international warrant issued by the US. The FBI accused Nikulin of hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring in the span of five months in 2012. Some of this data ended up online, via sites like LeakedSource.

 

Russia and the US are battling over Nikulin

Soon after the US filed an extradition request, Russia accused the US of harassing its citizens, but weeks later filed its own extradition attempt based on a 2009 legal complaint in which Nikulin was accused of stealing money from a Russian citizen's WebMoney account.

 

Through his lawyers and Russian officials, Nikulin claimed to have no computer skills. Earlier this year, Nikulin said that an FBI official who interrogated him twice, in November 2016 and February 2017, tried to convince him to plead guilty to hacking the DNC in 2016, a notorious cyber-incident attributed to Russia's cyber-intelligence units.

 

Russian officials have always claimed the US is trying to pin Nikulin as one of Russia's state-sponsored hackers.

 

In March, US officials charged four Russian nationals for hacking Yahoo in 2014. Two of the accused are FSB agents and the US implied that Russian intelligence officers are blackmailing Russian hackers to aid them in state-sanctioned operations.

 

Nikulin has filed an appeal, delaying a final decision

According to Czech media [1, 2, 3], there's a lot of political pressure from both sides.  Furthermore, the case is being handled very differently from other extradition cases.

 

For example, Nikulin has been held in solitary confinement all this time, and Nikulin's final extradition hearing has been heard inside a small room at the prison itself, rather than a court.

 

Nikulin has lodged an appeal against the extradition decision, and his case will go to the Czech High Court for another set of hearings.

 

Nikulin says he was a mechanic, not a hacking prodigy

Besides the hacks contained in the US and Russian extradition papers, there is also evidence that the 29-year-old Russian national might have been behind the hack of BitMarket.eu, a large Bitcoin exchange, from where he allegedly stole 619 Bitcoin ($1.4 million) in March 2013.

 

According to US officials, these hacks have funneled money into Nikulin's extravagant lifestyle. Russian media has documented Nikulin's lifestyle in editorials, showcasing his cars and friendship with various children of the Russian political elite.

 

On the other hand, Nikulin argued that he made his money as a mechanic, by buying and selling cars, and not from hacking.

Below is a video from Nikulin's arrest, which took place in a Prague restaurant on October 5, 2016.

 

 

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