The US Department of Justice (US DOJ) announced that an Algerian man alleged to have played a crucial role in developing, marketing, distributing and controlling SpyEye, has been extradited from Thailand to the US to face charges in Atlanta.
Hamza Bendelladj, also known as Bx1, faces 23 charges in an indictment returned in December 2011.
US DOJ acting assistant attorney general Mythili Raman said Hamza Bendelladj has been extradited to the US to face charges of controlling and selling a nefarious computer virus designed to pry into computers and extract personal financial information.
"The indictment charges Bendelladj and his co-conspirators with operating servers designed to control the personal computers of unsuspecting individuals and aggressively marketing their virus to other international cybercriminals intent on stealing sensitive information," Raman said.
The US DOJ said SpyEye virus is malicious computer code or "malware," which is designed to automate the theft of confidential personal and financial information, such as online banking credentials, credit card information, usernames, passwords, PINs and other personally identifying information.
According to court documents, from 2009 to 2011, Bendelladj and others allegedly developed, marketed and sold various versions of the SpyEye virus and component parts on the Internet.
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 $14m.
