Russian operator of Cardplanet carding site pleads guilty in the US

A Russian national pleaded guilty this week to running a carding website called Cardplanet that helped people commit credit-card fraud.

Last year, the Russian man Aleksei Burkov (29) was accused of running an online criminal marketplace, called Cardplanet, that helped crooks to organize more than $20 million in credit card fraud. In November, the suspect has been extradited to the US to face criminal charges.

Burkov was also operating another invite-only cybercrime forum, to obtain membership prospective members needed three existing members to “vouch” for their good reputation in the cybercrime community. The membership also requested a sum of money, normally $5,000, as insurance. Cardplanet was offering for sale stolen credit-card numbers for a price ranging from $3 to $60.

The suspect was arrested in Israel in 2015, his case made the headlines multiple times because media speculated a possible prisoner swap with Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American that was arrested in Russia on cannabis charges. In October, the Israel justice minister approved the extradition of Alexei Burkov to the United States.

Burkov entered the plea to charges including fraud and money laundering in a federal court in Alexandria.

“A Russian national pleaded guilty today to charges related to his operation of two websites devoted to the facilitation of payment card fraud, computer hacking and other crimes.” reads the press release published by the Department of Justice. “Aleksei Burkov, 29, pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to access device fraud and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, identity theft, wire and access device fraud and money laundering.  Sentencing is scheduled for May 8, 2020.”

In court, Burkov admitted to running a second website on an invite-only basis that was also for sale stolen payment data.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 8, 2020, Burkov faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Burkov, hacking)

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