This week, two programmers that attempted to extort several online casinos received hefty sentences from the Manchester Crown Court. After failing to con one online gambling website owner out of $30 million, the pair will be spending over five years in jail.
Piotr Smirnow, 31, and Patryk Surmacki, 35, approached the owner of an online casino, who has not been named, and threatened to launch a “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) if he refused to pay them. They requested $30 million from the site owner. When he refused, they paid a hacker to launch the DDoS, taking down the site’s servers for five hours. “
“The pair claimed they’d shown their power and it wouldn’t stop until the internet source codes for his business were handed over,” reads a police report on the case. “The CEO refused to provide them so they both became annoyed and said they were now ‘going to war’.” The downtime cost the online casino operator $15 000, and local authorities intervened before the owner could lose any more money.
When Smirnow and Surmaki met with the gaming professional for the second time, police bugged their hotel room. They obtained the proof necessary to convict the pair of criminals, who pleaded guilty in Manchester’s Crown Court. Smirnow and Surmaki were both sentenced to five years and four months in prison.
Their hefty sentences will serve as a deterrent, discouraging other criminals who may be considering carrying out a crime of this nature. The authorities applauded the owner of the website for the bravery he displayed by standing up to the criminals. In the face of adversity, he acted courageously to protect his business. By helping to put the pair behind bars, he helped to defend other online gaming sites from being extorted for millions.
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