Jury gets case of Russian accused of hacking tech companies

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Russian national was found guilty Friday of hacking Linkedin, Dropbox and Formspring in 2012 to steal and sell the login credentials of more than 100 million user accounts.

Yevginy Nikulin was convicted on all nine counts charged by prosecutors of computer intrusion, causing damage to a protected computer, aggravated identity theft, trafficking and conspiracy.

The jury in the first criminal trial to resume in federal court in California returned the verdict after roughly five hours of deliberation.

"You are a tremendous group of people," U.S. District Judge William Alsup told them. "Our country should be extremely proud to have citizens like you to come in the middle of a pandemic and put yourself at risk so our criminal justice system can survive."

Nikulin faces a statutory maximum of more than 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines. He's already served nearly 45 months in pretrial detention.

Northern District U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a statement the conviction is a "warning to would-be hackers" everywhere.

"Computer hacking is not just a crime, it is a direct threat to the security and privacy of Americans," the statement read. "American law enforcement will respond to that threat regardless of where it originates."

Due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, both sides agreed to proceed with as few as six jurors, if necessary, to avoid a mistrial. Alsup dismissed four of 16 total jurors when proceedings reopened for health-related hardships.

Another juror was expected to be let go on Monday for a vacation.

During the Friday Zoom video hearing, federal prosecutors in closing arguments urged the jury to untangle an intricate web of connections that they say point to him as the hacker responsible for the data breaches on the Silicon Valley technology companies.

"At the end of the day this case is not about computers," Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Wawrzyniak said. "This case is about stealing -- plain, ordinary, run of the mill theft. We need you not to be intimidated by the evidence of this case."

Several experts from the hacked companies testified that they traced the origins of the intrusions to a Russian IP address belonging to the email chianbig01@gmail.com. Wawrzyniak said, "You should be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that chinabig is the hacker."

While the contents of the email address did not reveal much information, investigators found it was used to create an account on afraid.org in 2012.

From there, Wawrzyniak continued, the investigation found there was an account for Kongregate, a gaming website, associated with the afraid.org account. The Kongregate account was set up using another email address, r00talka@gmail.com.

Unlike the contents of the chinabig01 account, the contents of the r00talka account contained revealing information, including automated messages from VK -- the Russian equivalent of Facebook. The messages were from Nikulin's brother and girlfriend.

Closing for the defense, Adam Gasner told jurors not to be swayed by "unreliable, circumstantial and at times confusing" proof. He said the U.S. attorney was looking for any conviction after an extensive investigation into Russian cyber crime.

"The government has asked you to follow the breadcrumbs, but who's leaving those breadcrumbs and why?" he asked.

Gasner attacked the credibility of testimony by the government's primary witness, FBI special agent Jeffrey Miller. He argued Miller's "tunnel vision" in pinning the crimes on Nikulin led to him ignoring a more likely suspect in Evgeniy Bogachev, the most wanted cyber criminal in the world.

Nikulin and Bogachev share the same first name in Russian, are about same age and have October birthdays, according to Gasner, who has maintained his client was framed or the victim of identity theft.

"This should make you question the other evidence," he said.

Alsup reprimanded prosecutors in front of the jury at the Tuesday hearing for the improper testimony, explaining "If that's evidence of guilt, God help us in this country."

The judge said the move was likely to backfire on them since jurors might think, "What case does the government have if that's what they resort to?"

After the verdict was delivered, Alsup said the court will be in contact with jurors to review how they can improve resuming jury trials amid the pandemic.