By Charley Lanyon

A jury in Seattle yesterday handed down 38 guilty verdicts to the son of an influential Russian politician over the theft of millions of credit-card numbers. Roman Seleznev was convicted of charges including wire fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, aggravated identity theft, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
The case ratcheted up already-high tensions between Russia and the United States, mainly because Seleznev’s father, Valery Seleznev, is a member of the Russian parliament and a prominent ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Valery had described his son’s extradition to the U.S. as “kidnapping.”
The elder Seleznev has long protested his son’s innocence, claiming that Roman hasn’t been proficient with computers since being disabled in a terrorist bombing in Morocco in 2011. READ MORE OF THIS STORY
SOURCES: Intelligencer Online