Thailand to extradite Russian hacker to US

BANGKOK, February 20 (TNA) - Bangkok's Criminal Court has ordered the extradition of a Russian hacker to be prosecuted in the United States for a pending case. The Thai Criminal Court ruled on Wednesday that the Russian culprit, 47-year-old Dmitry Ukrainsky who has been detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison after his arrest by Thai police, must be extradited to the United States, as earlier requested by the US Embassy to Thailand. The court verdict indicated it has been found grounded, as reported by the US government, that the Russian man had worked with his team to develop and send a malware to hack digital banking transfer systems of victims in several countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan, and had transferred the victims's money to his gang members' accounts in Thailand, causing a total loss of over one billion baht to the victims. The Russian culprit was detected to have then fled to stay in Thailand's Pattaya City in the eastern seaside Chonburi Province, where he had run a yacht leasing firm to serve international tourists for some times before he was arrested by the Thai police on charges of fraud and money laundering based on the Thai criminal law. According to the Bangkok Criminal Court's ruling, the Russian culprit must be extradited to the United States as an urgent case, after serving his over one year-jail term in Thailand on the charge of money laundering, which is not a political offense. Earlier, an Uzbek woman, identified as Olga Komova, was arrested and extradited to the United States on the same charges after a US accusation that she was a conspirator of the 47-year-old Russian culprit was found grounded. (TNA)