Parents of alleged hacker in disbelief
Despite the luxury cars and expensive clothes, Karim Baratov, 22, is said to be a simple website designer
To the U.S. Department of Justice, Karim Baratov is an experienced criminal hacker.
To his parents, he is a bright, generous, law-abiding boy with a talent for website design and a thriving online business.
Baratov, 22, was arrested at his home on Chambers Drive near the Meadowlands area of Ancaster on March 14 in connection with a prolific hacking scheme, allegedly organized by Russian intelligence agents, that breached about 500 million Yahoo email accounts and targeted diplomats, bureaucrats, journalists and business executives for political and financial gain.
U.S. authorities have charged Baratov, a Kazakh-born Canadian citizen, with aggravated identity theft and conspiring to commit fraud, and are looking to extradite him south of the border.
If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Baratov is alleged to have hacked into 18 email accounts, for a fee of US$100 per account.
At a bail hearing in Hamilton on Wednesday, Baratov’s parents proclaimed their son’s innocence.
“My son ... did not do anything so terrible to be accused of such things,” said Baratov’s mother, Dinara Tokbergenova through an interpreter.
His father, Akhmet Tokbergenov, said he had asked Baratov outright about the charges, and that Baratov told him he had never worked for Russian authorities nor ever even heard the names of his co-accused.
“I don’t want to judge my son before he has been judged ... in court,” Tokbergenov added, also through an interpreter.
Baratov’s defence team has proposed that he live with his parents, under their supervision, if released on bail.
In court, Canadian Department of Justice attorney Heather Graham questioned Tokbergenov and Tokbergenova about their son’s ostentatious lifestyle.
Since his teen years, when he still lived with his parents, the former Ancaster High School student has driven expensive cars and worn expensive clothes, as documented in his social media posts and the recollections of former classmates.
Baratov is charged in connection with just $1,800 worth of alleged hacking.
But, according to an affidavit by Detective Const. Burak Inal of the Toronto Police Fugitive Squad, more than $210,000 was deposited into Baratov’s PayPal account between 2013 and 2016.
And Baratov appears to have earned at least another $210,000 in a Russian-based form of online currency called Webmoney, said the U.S. Department of Justice in a document filed before the bail hearing.
In the same document, Canadian authorities are quoted as saying Baratov has no “legitimate” means of income.
When the Toronto Star asked the RCMP whether Baratov was being investigated for hacking activities not related to his current charges, spokesperson Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer said the Mounties would not confirm anything unless more charges were laid.
Tokbergenova told the court that her son earns his money designing websites.
He has told her so, she said, and she has seen him working on his sites herself.
Website design can be very profitable, she said, and Baratov’s sites are of very high quality.
Baratov’s father testified that his son made his money through online services.
Both mother and father testified that the version of Baratov described in his U.S. indictment and in the media is completely at odds with the Karim they know.
When Baratov was arrested, police found about $30,000 in cash at Baratov’s house, and another $9,000 in cash in his wallet, Graham told the court.
Baratov testified that he earns his money by offering online services, such as renting or selling space on web servers, and protecting websites from hackers.
He told the court he claimed $90,000 in business income for 2014 and $60,000 for 2015.
At the time of his arrest, Baratov lived on his own.
In September 2015, he and his parents bought a $642,500 house a few minutes’ drive from the family home on Moorland Crescent, taking out a mortgage of $514,000.
In documents filed by Graham before the bail hearing, Canadian and U.S. authorities say Baratov’s alleged hacking for Russian agents began nearly a year before he left home.
In written submissions for Baratov’s bail hearing, the Canadian Department of Justice attorney Heather Graham wrote that PayPal and email records “demonstrate that Baratov has sent tens of thousands of (scam) emails, and has hacked thousands of accounts,” beyond the ones for which he is now charged.
“The FBI has identified more than 80 websites maintained by Baratov to carry out his hacking activities,” wrote Graham.
In documents filed in court, the U.S. Department of Justice describes a Russian-language website registered to Baratov, which specifically advertises email hacking services.
Baratov was born in Kazakhstan in 1995.
In March 2007, when Baratov was 12, he immigrated to Canada with his parents and older sister, Sabina.
Baratov’s father, Tokbergenov, testified in court Wednesday that they moved to get away from the heavy-handed spectre of post-Soviet Russia, hoping their children would grow up in a better environment.
Property records show that in 2007, Baratov’s parents bought a home on Kendrick Court in Ancaster for $310,000. It is near Garner Road West and Fiddlers Green Road.
Tokbergenov, now 56, was awarded a PhD in veterinary sciences from Moscow Agricultural Academy. But, once in Canada, he was “too qualified” to find work, he said in an affidavit.
In 2009, he started his own veterinary consulting business.
He now works as a veterinary consultant for a Kazakh company.
Tokbergenov earns about $40,000 to $50,000 per year, he told a court.
Baratov’s mother, Tokbergenova, has a bachelor’s degree in Kazakh history, but found it of little use in Canada, she told the court.
After immigrating, Tokbergenova, now 47, began taking English language classes and eventually enrolled in a two-year nursing program at Mohawk College, she said in an affidavit.
She is now a registered practical nurse at St. Joseph’s Villa, a long-term care home in Dundas.
Tokbergenova said in her affidavit that she earns $46,000 a year.
The family gained Canadian citizenship on July 1, 2011, they say, and gave up their citizenship to Kazakhstan, which does not recognize dual citizens.
That year, the family sold their home and bought another house at 47 Moorland Cres. for $550,000, taking out a mortgage of $235,000.
Tokbergenov and Tokbergenova told the court they are willing to put up all the equity in their home, $845,000, plus $10,000 in savings for their son’s bail.
Both mother and father said Baratov is a loving son, who has always listened to his parents’ rules and advice.
In affidavits submitted for the bail hearing, Tokbergenov and Tokbergenova said they saw their son almost every day between the time he moved into his own home at 56 Chambers Dr., and the time of his arrest.
The Crown has argued that Baratov is a considerable risk to skip bail if released, due to the amount of disposable income he possesses and alleged ties to Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
Baratov’s bail hearing is scheduled to resume on April 11.
My son ... did not do anything so terrible to be accused of such things.
FATHER, AKHMET TOKBERGENOV