A police officer escorts Lithuanian hacker Evaldas Rimasauskas to Vilnius District court in Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 18, 2017.A Lithuanian man who duped Google and Facebook into transferring over $100-million into accounts he controlled pleaded guilty to wire fraud Wednesday.
The charge could carry as many as 30 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1-million or twice the crime’s proceeds. The plea deal he reached with prosecutors said Rimasauskas faces almost certain deportation once he finishes behind bars.Rimasauskas was extradited in August 2017 to New York from Lithuania after his arrest there in March 2017. He has been detained since.
Google, of Mountain View, California, has said it has recouped its money. Facebook, of Menlo Park, California, has said it recovered most of its money. “Rimasauskas thought he could hide behind a computer screen halfway across the world while he conducted his fraudulent scheme, but as he has learned, the arms of American justice are long, and he now faces significant time in a U.S. prison,” Berman said.In court, Rimasauskas said he carried out the scheme from October 2013 to October 2016.