The wife of the arrested Russian hacker denies the charges against him in the US

Maria Levashova.
Screenshot from Reuters

The wife of the Russian programmer Peter Levashov, suspected of hacker attacks, who is awaiting extradition from Spain to the USA, said that he denied the charges of developing one of the world's largest spam networks.

According to her, her husband is kept in solitary confinement, writes Reuters.

Peter Levashov was arrested in Barcelona in April 2017, the US prosecutor’s office accuses him of hacking, as well as managing a network of tens of thousands of virus-infected computers that used cybercriminals.

According to the extradition request, the prosecutor's office is asking to sentence Levashov to 52 years in prison.

According to the organization Spamhaus, Levashov under a pseudonym Peter severa For several years he was among the ten most active spammers in the world.

Russian hackers are under scrutiny after US intelligence agencies blamed Moscow for influencing the US presidential election.

Levashov’s wife, Maria, said that her husband denied the charges, but had not yet fully acquainted with them. She also accused the Spanish authorities of mistreatment, which, in her opinion, is the fulfillment of the request of the American special services.

“Apparently, this is what the actions of the Spanish and American authorities are aimed at - to bring my husband either to the point where he is ready to sign everything, or simply will not live to see the trial,” she said.

Levashova said that her husband was kept in solitary confinement and often transferred from one prison to another without notice, so she does not know exactly where he is at the moment.

According to Levashova, attempts to challenge the extradition of her husband were constantly blocked. He was forbidden to conduct private correspondence with a lawyer, and numerous written requests to allow a meeting with representatives of the Russian consulate in Spain were ignored.

A representative of the Spanish Prison Authority denied that prisoners in Spain were treated improperly, noting that he was not prohibited from confidential communication with a lawyer.

US prosecutors accuse Levashov of managing the botnet Kelihos - a network of infected devices used by hackers to spread viruses, ransomware, send phishing emails and other spam attacks.

At some points of its work network Kelihos consisted of more than 100 000 infected computers and could send more 2 500 spam emails within 24 hours. According to the investigation, Levashov took from $ 300 to $ 500 per million messages.

The US Prosecutor's Office believes that this activity has allowed the Russian to get rich.

According to Maria, these accusations are not true. She married Levashov in 2009 and bore him a son.

“We didn’t have any big money. We lived normally, but not in any great abundance. There was no foreign real estate, luxury cars, or anything else, so I somehow didn’t get involved in his affairs, because there was no need,” she said.

According to her, her husband studied computer engineering, but did not work as a programmer when they were already familiar, and usually used a computer for video games.

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