The United States has deported a convicted cyber-criminal and malware creator back to his native Russia.
Computer programmer Stanislav Vitaliyevich Lisov was arrested by Spanish authorities at Barcelona–El Prat Airport on January 13, 2017, at the request of the FBI, then extradited to the United States on January 19, 2018.
Lisov is the creator of banking Trojan NeverQuest and part of a criminal enterprise that used the malware in attempts to steal $4.4m from the bank accounts of hundreds of victims.
The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking in November 2019 and admitted using NeverQuest to successfully thieve $855,000. He was subsequently sentenced to 48 months in federal prison by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In addition to his custodial sentence, Lisov was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay forfeiture of $50,000 and restitution of $481,388.04. The maximum sentence he could have been handed would have seen the threat actor spend 35 years behind bars.
After earning credit for time served, the malware-maker was due to be released in a few months' time. However, the United States opted to deport Lisov to Russia on June 16.
Lisov spent six days in an immigration detention facility to which he was transferred from a prison in Pennsylvania on June 10. According to Russian Embassy officials in the US, the cyber-criminal was then transported to New York's JFK International Airport, where he boarded a Moscow-bound Aeroflot flight.
Reports at the time of Lisov's capture stated that the malicious actor was on honeymoon in Barcelona with his new wife when Spanish authorities placed him under arrest.
In a statement to the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti, Alexei Topolsky, a spokesperson for the Russian Consulate General in New York, said Lisov was unrestrained by handcuffs when he arrived for his flight.
According to Topolsky, Lisov, who was dressed in simple clothes and a face mask, "looked like a person who was happy to be going home."
Lisov was met at Sheremetyevo International Airport by his wife, Darya Lisova.