Defendant pleads guilty in brokerage keylogger case

One of three conspirators in a computer-fraud scheme that used trojans to steal funds from brokerage accounts has pleaded guilty to federal charges in New York.

Alexey Mineev of Hampton, N.H. pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of money laundering. Two others individuals were indicted in November: Aleksey Volynskiy of New York and Alexander Bobnev of Volgogard, Russia. But only Mineev and Volynskiy, both naturalized U.S. citizens, have been captured.

The three men installed keylogging trojans onto victim's computers, according to an indictment, which did not describe how they accomplished this. When victims logged onto their brokerage accounts, their credentials were stolen and used by the defendants to access the accounts.

Bobnev transferred the money to one of several accounts set up by Mineev and Volynskiy, and they withdrew the money and wired it to Russia, according to the indictment.

Mineev faces two years in prison and must return $112,000 that was made from the scheme. Charges still are pending for Volynskiy, and Bobnev has not yet been apprehended in Russia.