In a case that cybersecurity experts called exceptional for the risks he took, Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reno. His court-appointed federal public defender, Chris Frey, declined Friday to comment.
“It's also possible that the criminals thought the gamble was worth it and decided to roll the dice,” Callow said. He already has been in custody for seven months, since his arrest in August in Los Angeles. Federal authorities said he had been heading to an airport to fly out of the country. Court documents say Kriuchkov was in the United States for more than five weeks last July and August on a Russian passport and a tourist visa when he tried to recruit an employee of what was identified as “Company A” to install software enabling a computer hack.No other suspected co-conspirators were charged in the case. Some were identified in a criminal complaint by nicknames including Kisa and Pasha, and a person is identified as Sasha Skarobogatov.