NEVADA
One of the leaders of the Infraud Organization pleaded guilty Friday to RICO conspiracy involving a $568 million debit and credit card scam, according to officials.
Sergey Medvedev, aka “Stells,” “segmed,” “serjbear,” 33, of the Russian Federation, pleaded guilty in federal court.
According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization was created in October 2010 by Svyatoslav Bondarenko aka “Obnon,” “Rector,” and “Helkern,” 34, of Ukraine, to promote and grow interest in the Infraud Organization as the premier destination for “carding”—purchasing retail items with counterfeit or stolen credit card information—on the Internet.
Under the slogan, “In Fraud We Trust,” the organization directed traffic and potential purchasers to the automated vending sites of its members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods.
It also provided an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital currency transactions among its members and employed screening protocols that purported to ensure only high-quality vendors of stolen cards, personally identifiable information, and other contrabands were permitted to advertise to members.
In March 2017, there were 10,901 registered members of the Infraud Organization.
During the course of its seven-year history, the Infraud Organization inflicted approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses, and more than $568 million in actual losses, on a wide swath of financial institutions, merchants, and private individuals, and would have continued to do so for the foreseeable future if left unchecked.