Update: Creators of SpyEye Trojan Aleksandr Panin, Hamza Bendelladj Sentenced
Even though several social media platforms are claiming that Hamza Bendelladj has been sentenced to death, in reality, he cannot be sentenced to death all his criminal activities were electronic and he had already been pleaded guilty for his crimes.
This news has been confirmed by the statement released by the US ambassador to Algeria, Amb. Joan Polaschik (@JoanPolaschik), on Twitter, after she witnessed how media is responding to the false news and allegations.
She stated that on June 26th, Hamza Bendelladj, Algerian-based hacker and a Co-Creator of the SpyEye Trojan, pleaded guilty for all the crimes he did including the development, distribution and monitoring of the banking victims using SpyEye Trojan. All of these are computer-based crimes and none of them is punishable by the death sentence. She also added that further judgement will take place after few months, maybe by the end of this year.
1/2 Hamza Bendelladj a plaidé coupable 26 juin pour avoir développé, distribué, et contrôlé SpyEye un Cheval de Troie bancaire malicieux.
— U.S. Ambassador (@USAmbtoAlgeria) August 22, 2015
2/2 Le verdict aura lieu apres quelques mois. Crimes informatiques ne sont pas des crimes capitaux & ne sont pas punis par la peine de mort
— U.S. Ambassador (@USAmbtoAlgeria) August 22, 2015
For those who don’t understand French, here is the translated version of the above-mentioned tweets (Via The Cryptoshare)
“1/2 Bendelladj Hamza pleaded guilty June 26 for having developed, distributed, and monitored a malicious SpyEye banking Trojan.”
“2/2 The verdict will take place after a few months. Computer crimes are not capital crimes & are not punished by the death penalty”
Back in 2013, Bendelladj was arrested in Thailand and was later deported to the United States after which he was charged with twenty-three different crimes and alleges from 2009 to 2011, including several bank wire frauds, computer frauds and abuse schemes.
According to the indictment document released by the Justice dated June 26th, 2013, SpyEye, a malware and phishing toolkit was specifically designed for the theft of confidential private data as well as financial credentials of the targeted victim.
When Bendelladj was arrested and being deported to the United States, a report was released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which the officials stated:
“If convicted, Bendelladj faces a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud; up to 20 years for each wire fraud count; up to five years for conspiracy to commit computer fraud; up to five or 10 years for each count of computer fraud; and fines of up to $14 million.”
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