Moscow – Russian hacker Peter Levashov (40 years old), known internationally as “BotMaster” in the USA, was sentenced to 33 months in prison, which he previously spent in detention on charges of operating a network of devices used to steal data from computers, distributing spam and installing software harmful.

In 2018, Levashov pleaded guilty to willful damage to a protected computer, conspiracy, online fraud, and severe identity theft, the AP reports.

Prosecutors accuse Lavashov of working through several compromised computers known as “botnets,” which could generate billions of unsolicited emails, Tanjug said.

US District Judge Robert Shatinge expressed confidence that the sentencing report overestimated the financial consequences of Levashov’s crimes, but acknowledged that the crimes he committed were serious and sophisticated.

It goes without saying that the person who makes and uses the “bots”, as I did and took advantage of them by making them available to cybercriminals, should expect to be prosecuted and punished. “This is indeed dangerous and harmful criminal behaviour,” the judge noted.

Levashov was arrested in April 2017 while on vacation in Spain, and his arrest was one of the planned arrests of Russian cybercriminals outside Russia, which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States.

Russian authorities fought his extradition, but in the end, Levashov was extradited to America.

Prosecutors in Connecticut, where the Russian hacker was tried, demanded 12 to 14.5 years in prison.