Gozi was one of the earliest man-in-the-browser trojans – a forerunner of Zeus and SpyEye. According to the US court filings, Gozi infected more than 100,000 computers around the world with at least 25,000 in the US, and was responsible for the loss of tens of millions of dollars. Calovskis' role was to fine tune the web injects that determined the screen view on infected computers.
But as recently as the end of July 2013 it appeared unlikely that the Latvian government would acquiesce with the extradition of Calovskis. Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics explained (Google translate) on the official Foreign Ministry website that he was opposed to the extradition, citing 'proportionality' as his key concern – a potential for 67 years in a US penitentiary would be a life sentence for creating malware. Proportionality in punishment, he explained, is guaranteed by the Latvian constitution.
He cites four other concerns: that Calovskis should be allowed (unlikely) to serve any US sentence in Latvia; that he is personally not convinced that Calovskis committed any crime on US soil; that any charges should be investigated by Latvian law enforcement agencies; and that he has concerns that turning over a suspect to face more than 60 years in prison could be regarded as cruel and therefore in breach of the European Human Rights Convention. He also raises precedent: Britain declined to hand over hacker Gary McKinnon.
Rinkevics' concerns, however, went unheeded. Yesterday the Latvian government (that is, the ministers) voted by seven to five with one abstention to approve the extradition. According to the Associated Press, Latvia's chief prosecutor had earlier told the ministers that there was sufficient evidence to link Calovskis to the crimes.
Although this decision is final, "a Justice Ministry spokeswoman told The Associated Press that it would take at least several days" before extradition would take place. Meanwhile, "Calovskis' lawyer, Saulvedis Varpins, has told Latvian media that he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the extradition."