The verdict for Sandu Deacon was unexpected and yet unpleasant.
The court sentenced the owner of E-Root — a large-scale Internet platform where attackers traded access to hacked computers around the world. Moldovan citizen Sandu Diacon, known under the pseudonyms utmsandu, sandushell, rootarhive and WinD3str0y, will spend 42 months in prison. According to the case file, at the end of the term, the criminal will be under close supervision of law enforcement agencies for another 3 years.
The verdict came after Deacon pleaded guilty in December to five counts: one of conspiracy to defraud and four more for possessing 15 or more means of accessing other people's data.
Deacon's attempt to evade justice ended with his arrest in the UK in May 2021, after the authorities seized E-Root domains at the end of 2020.
In October 2023, he was extradited to the United States on charges of fraud, money laundering, computer crimes and using other people's means of payment.
"Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, authorities claim that more than 350,000 accounts were exposed on the Marketplace," the Justice Department said.
"The victims were people all over the world. These are representatives of various fields and organizations, including local government agencies, for example, one of the departments of the city of Tampa. Many of them were subjected to ransomware attacks. In addition, some of the information offered on the site was used in tax refund fraud schemes."
Diaconu administered the E-Root platform from January 2015 to February 2020. Complex network infrastructure was used for illegal operations to hide the identity of administrators, buyers and sellers.
The service allowed customers to search for information to access compromised networks via RDP and SSH, with the ability to filter by price, geographical location, Internet service provider, and operating system.
The site also used the Perfect Money payment system, which helped hide payment details.
In addition, E-Root was engaged in illegal cryptocurrency exchange, providing users with the ability to convert bitcoins, US dollars and other currencies to Perfect Money and vice versa.
"The E-Root platform looked like a standard online store and operated under the guise of a legitimate commercial organization. Administrators provided real credentials from compromised servers. In addition, they offered exchange services and guarantees, trying to maintain a high level of customer service." - said in the indictment.
It is interesting that initially the court spoke about a much longer term. The deacon was facing up to 20 years in prison, but apparently the justice system decided to forgive him some of his sins.
The court sentenced the owner of E-Root — a large-scale Internet platform where attackers traded access to hacked computers around the world. Moldovan citizen Sandu Diacon, known under the pseudonyms utmsandu, sandushell, rootarhive and WinD3str0y, will spend 42 months in prison. According to the case file, at the end of the term, the criminal will be under close supervision of law enforcement agencies for another 3 years.
The verdict came after Deacon pleaded guilty in December to five counts: one of conspiracy to defraud and four more for possessing 15 or more means of accessing other people's data.
Deacon's attempt to evade justice ended with his arrest in the UK in May 2021, after the authorities seized E-Root domains at the end of 2020.
In October 2023, he was extradited to the United States on charges of fraud, money laundering, computer crimes and using other people's means of payment.
"Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, authorities claim that more than 350,000 accounts were exposed on the Marketplace," the Justice Department said.
"The victims were people all over the world. These are representatives of various fields and organizations, including local government agencies, for example, one of the departments of the city of Tampa. Many of them were subjected to ransomware attacks. In addition, some of the information offered on the site was used in tax refund fraud schemes."
Diaconu administered the E-Root platform from January 2015 to February 2020. Complex network infrastructure was used for illegal operations to hide the identity of administrators, buyers and sellers.
The service allowed customers to search for information to access compromised networks via RDP and SSH, with the ability to filter by price, geographical location, Internet service provider, and operating system.
The site also used the Perfect Money payment system, which helped hide payment details.
In addition, E-Root was engaged in illegal cryptocurrency exchange, providing users with the ability to convert bitcoins, US dollars and other currencies to Perfect Money and vice versa.
"The E-Root platform looked like a standard online store and operated under the guise of a legitimate commercial organization. Administrators provided real credentials from compromised servers. In addition, they offered exchange services and guarantees, trying to maintain a high level of customer service." - said in the indictment.
It is interesting that initially the court spoke about a much longer term. The deacon was facing up to 20 years in prison, but apparently the justice system decided to forgive him some of his sins.
