United States v Alexander Pakhtusov

Court Number: 19-cr-310

Case Update  -   September 13, 2023

On September 13, 2023, the court unsealed the case and held the sentencing hearing.  Mr. Pakhtusov was sentenced to a total of 61 months in prison: 37 months on the Access Device Fraud count, and an additional 24 months on the three Aggravated Identity Theft counts (which will run concurrent to each other but consecutive to the Access Device Fraud sentence).  The term of imprisonment will be followed by 1 year of supervised release.  Mr. Pakhtusov will receive credit for the time he has previously served, including during the extradition process.  He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,379,000 to Bank A’s parent company, and a forfeiture order was entered.  The court also dismissed the remaining 10 counts of the indictment, as was agreed to as part of the plea agreement.

Case Summary and Current Status as of August 25, 2023

Alexander Pakhtusov was a seller on both Slilpp and Paysell (now called Blackpass) using the moniker “Mrtikov.”  His overall involvement spanned from at least April 2016 through September 2019 and included listing for sale over 17 million economically valuable accounts of individuals held at various companies and banks.  He actually sold over 14,000 sets of login credentials.  The people who purchased those login credentials used those credentials to steal money from victim accounts.

On September 17, 2019, Mr. Pakhtusov was indicted on 14 counts: Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud and Wire Fraud (Counts One and Two); Bank Fraud (Counts Three and Four); Wire Fraud (Count Five); Access Device Fraud (Count Six); Access Device Fraud (Counts Seven and Eight); and Aggravated Identity Theft (Counts Nine through Fourteen).  Mr. Pakhtusov was subsequently extradited to the United States.  

On March 12, 2021, Mr. Pakhtusov pled guilty to one count of Access Device Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3) (Count Eight of the Indictment) and three counts of Aggravated Identity Theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A (Counts Nine, Ten, and Eleven of the Indictment).

            The sentencing is currently scheduled for September 13, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. EST, in front of Judge Trevor N. McFadden. 

You may complete a Victim Impact Statement prior to sentencing but you are NOT required to do so.  Even if you were reimbursed for your loss, you still are entitled to be treated as a victim and as such, may complete a victim impact statement.  If you chose to do so, please submit the victim impact statements via email by September 8, 2023 to USADC.VIS.USvPakhtusov@usdoj.gov.

If you wish to attend the sentencing, it will be held on September 13, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. EST at the U.S. Courthouse, which is located at 333 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20001.  If you plan to attend, please let us know by September 8, 2023. 

If you are a victim of the charged offense(s) and wish to speak at sentencing, please email USADC.VIS.USvPakhtusov@usdoj.gov no later than September 8, 2023. 

Due to the large number of victims in this matter, you may obtain current information about this case on the website located at https://www.justice.gov/information-victims-large-cases.  

Because of the Court's schedule, hearing dates could change on very short notice.  If you plan on attending the sentencing, you may want to check the website to confirm the date and time.  Please note, there may be a delay in information transfer to the website.

Should you have questions concerning this case, please send an email to USAEO.MCAP@usdoj.gov