Slashdot Mirror
Ukrainian Arrested In India For TJX Data Theft
ComputerWorld reports "A Ukrainian national has been arrested in India in connection with the most notorious hacking incident in US history." "Sergey Valeryevich Storchark was one of 11 men charged in August 2008 with hacking into nine US retailers and selling tens of millions of credit card numbers. He was arrested in India earlier this week, according to a spokesman with India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In a statement, the CBI said they'd arrested Storchark in New Delhi on the night of May 8, as he deplaned from a flight from Goa, for layover before a flight to Turkey. US authorities had asked for his extradition via diplomatic channels. ... 'His extradition and prosecution would have been very unlikely had he reached his final destination of Ukraine,' the CBI said."
as a canadian i am very aware of the unhesitant inclination of americans to apply their laws the world over. black ops renditions? no problem.
consider that this guy has never set foot in the US of A, possibly accepted credit card numbers using servers entirely out of american jurisdiction. it's possible he broke no laws in his own country. As i understand it, some american collected all the credit card numbers and offered them up to this guy. so, he's like a pawnbroker knowingly accepting stolen goods, except he's like a pawnbroker in another country. Now, if I was to steal some jewelery from an american, maybe in canada, and hot foot it to nigeria to sell my loot, is the US of A going to rendition whoever I sell them to there? As far as I know, once I get out of the country - heck, maybe even if I crossed state lines, I'm clear, and the guy I sell to is clear too. Why is the credit card thing any different, legally and jurisdictionally?
The example isn't the greatest because it's pretty clearly against the law to steal jewelery in canada, america, and probably even in nigeria too. Hey, but suppose it's England, and I find some jewelery just lying there on the street, hightail to nigeria, sell it. As far as I know, in canada and america, it's finders keepers, but in england I'd be a thief.
So why does the US have any jurisdiction here? the guy never set foot on US soil. he wasn't even arrested in the US. The americans got the indians to execute their warrant. This guy probably hasn't even been served with anything, no disclosure whatsoever. Did he even know there were charges against him? He's been given the guantanamo bay judge jury executioner treatment.
Suppose the americans decide to enforce their dmca act across the world. What then? Well, I can imagine the pirate bay crew would be facing some quality time in a corner of cuba, stat.
Closer to home we've got some compassion club guy in BC gold territory who sold some seeds to americans from an online seed catalog in canada. he never set foot in the states, and it's the US post office that should be jailed for trafficking but here he is being sent to an american jail for years, and probably not one of those martha stewart comrad black country club prisons either.
Well, heck, the americans invaded afganistan on the slimmest of pretexts so what do you expect. the taliban offerred up bin laden if the americans would just present some proof he was 911 connected, but the americans got all indignant about some ragheads getting uppity and asking questions, so they invaded instead. 8 years later bin laden is still at large - but they got the oil. oh, and the poppy crop is outstanding.