Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya (Russian: Кристина Владимировна Свечинская, born ca. 1989) is a Russian money mule hacker. A student of the New York University, she was accused of a plot to defraud several British and U.S. banks of sizeable sums and usage of false passports.According to charges, Svechinskaya used Zeus trojan horse to attack thousands of bank accounts and opened at least five accounts in Bank of America and Wachovia,which received $35,000 (£22,000) of money theft.It is estimated that with nine other people Svechinskaya had skimmed $3 million in total.Svechinskaya was dubbed "the world's sexiest computer hacker" for her raunchy, but casual appearance and was compared to Anna Chapman.
Life
Fluent in English, Svechinskaya was originally studying at the Stavropol State University.According to Svechinskaya's mother, after the death of Kristina's father their family was living on a sole 12,000 ruble ($400 USD) salary. While on her third year, Kristina chose the Work & Travel program and arrived to Massachusetts, where she started to work in a fastfood branch. The earnings in Massachusetts however were small and she moved to New York where she chose to work as a hacker's money mule.
A court decision made Svechinskaya eligible for release on $25,000 bail.She signed a personal recognizance bond.The sentence is expected to be announced in June 2011.If convicted, she could be imprisoned for up to 40 years.This includes the plot charge (30 years and the $1 million fine) and the false passports charge (10 years and the $250,000 fine).
