[BreachExchange] Sacramento man involved in large-scale credit card scheme sentenced to over 24 years in prison

[Terrell Byrd]

https://fox40.com/news/california-connection/final-member-of-large-scale-credit-card-scheme-sentenced-to-prison/

SACRAMENTO, Calif (KTXL) — A Sacramento man was sentenced in a federal
court Tuesday for his involvement in an international credit card scheme.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Aleksandr Maslov, 40, will
serve 24 years and four months in prison. Federal prosecutors said court
documents show, from Oct. 5, 2011 to March 5, 2014, Maslow conspired with
three others to create 71 shell companies with the sole purpose of
fraudulently charging about 119,000 stolen cards.

Officials said a Moscow-based hacker was involved in creating the
fraudulent companies and a total of $3.4 million of unauthorized charges
were billed to the stolen cards.

Other co-defendants in the case are Mihran Melkonyan, 41, of Sacramento,
Rouslan Kirilyuk, 43 of Los Angeles, and Rouslan Akhmerov, 46, of Studio
City.

Maslov is the final defendant in the scheme to get sentenced, as Melkonyan,
Kirilyuk and Akhmerov are all currently serving prison time, prosecutors
said. Officials said Kirilyuk has a “history of corporate cyber-intrusion
dating back to at least 2003, according to court documents.”

Officials said the shell companies were created after the defendants stole
over 200 report cards from the San Juan Unified School District. Those
report cards included students’ personal information with names and social
security numbers, prosecutors said.

When they obtained that data, the defendants used that personal information
to create shell companies that sounded like real businesses. Officials said
those companies were named “CVS Store,” “Walt Mart,” and “Chevran.”

Prosecutors said Maslov and the other defendants worked with a Moscow-based
hacker to use stolen American Express credit card account numbers to charge
their shell companies.

After opening bank accounts in California, prosecutors said members of the
scheme used shell bank accounts, in the names of identities they stole and
former Russian students, to transfer stolen money.

“The members of the conspiracy also used numerous runners in the Los
Angeles area to withdraw money in the form of cash,” officials said in a
press release. “The conspirators then sent a portion of the stolen money to
Moscow, using prepaid debit cards and by hiding cash inside of items
shipped through the mail.”

Officials said Maslov, Kirilyuk and Melkonyan all fled before they were
apprehended by federal agents. Kirilyuk was caught in Mexico and arrested
by the FBI after being flown to San Francisco. Melkonyan was arrested in
California after re-entering the U.S. and Maslov was apprehended in
Virginia, according to the release.

On Jan. 4, 2019, Melkonyan was sentenced to 19 years and two months in
prison on 24 counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud.

Kirilyuk was sentenced to 27 years of prison time on Dec. 6, 2019 for 24
counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft and one
count of failure to appear in court.

Officials said Akmerov is sentenced to time behind bars after pleading
guilty to one count of access device fraud on Dec. 15, 2014.
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