Judge sentences Russian hacker to 27-year term

SEATTLE — A federal judge on Friday handed down the longest sentence ever imposed in the U.S. for a cybercrime case to the son of a member of the Russian Parliament convicted of hacking into more than 500 U.S. businesses and stealing millions of credit card numbers, which he then sold on special websites.

Roman Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $170 million in restitution to the business and banks that were the victims of his multiyear scheme.

Prior to his sentencing, Seleznev asked U.S. District Judge Richard Jones for leniency. He apologized to his victims and said he was remorseful, but he urged the judge to consider his medical problems, the result of his suffering a severe head injury in a terrorist bombing in Morocco in 2011, in deciding his prison term.

“You were driven by one goal: greed,” Jones said in sentencing him.

After sentencing, Seleznev lawyer Igor Litvak read a handwritten statement from his client that said the long sentence was a political prosecution at a time of strained U.S.-Russian relations.