US Court Reschedules Russian National Tyurin's Sentencing, Date To Be Determined Later

A US federal court rescheduled the sentencing of Russian national Andrei Tyurin over hacking charges due to technical problems encountered during a telephonic hearing on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2020) A US federal court rescheduled the sentencing of Russian national Andrei Tyurin over hacking charges due to technical problems encountered during a telephonic hearing on Thursday.

"We will resume as quickly as possible," Judge Laura Taylor Swain said during the call.

The judge, from a New York-based federal district court, urged prosecutors and defenders to find out the acceptable day and reach out to the court to schedule the new time of sentencing.

The conference started with a delay of nearly one hour as parties were trying to connect to each other. Swain warned from the very beginning that they may be forced to interrupt a conversation due to lack of time.

Tyurin's lawyer Florian Miedel recommended postponing the sentencing due to the inability to talk to his client before the hearing, so the judge agreed to provide them a separate line to conduct conversations.

"Tyurin... believes that he has contracted COVID-19 but would like to proceed by phone," the lawyer said after the conversation.

US prosecutors also asked to postpone the sentencing because of newly discovered circumstances.

"The government just received [a] warrant from one additional victim who would like to seek restitution as well, so the government would seek the additional 90 days to finalize that restitution," Assistant US Attorney Eun Young Choi said.

Tyurin was arrested in Georgia in 2017 at the US government's request. The US authorities alleged that Tyurin was involved in a global hacking campaign targeting financial institutions that resulted in the theft of personal data from more than 100 million users.

Georgia extradited Tyurin to the United States in September 2018.

In 2019, Tyurin pleaded guilty to six counts, including conspiracy to commit computer hacking, wire fraud, conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, the Justice Department said in a statement.