18 U.S.C. § 1349
Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud
Key Facts
- Statutory Citation: 18 U.S.C. § 1349.
- Official Offense: Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud.
- Jurisdiction: United States (Federal).
- Correlated across 8 primary case matters in this library.
Prosecutorial Elements in Cyber Cases
Permits federal prosecutors to charge conspirators who knowingly join a wire fraud or BEC scheme even without proof of an overt act in every district.
Statutory Sentencing Exposure
Up to 20 years imprisonment (30 years if impacting financial institutions), carrying the full statutory maximum of substantive wire fraud.
Representative Prosecution Cases (8)
U.S. v. Roman Seleznev (Track2 Point-of-Sale Carding)
Prolific cybercriminal (Track2) who hacked into more than 500 small businesses and restaurants across the United States, stealing millions of credit card numbers and generating tens of millions of dollars in illicit sales on automated carding portals.
U.S. v. Baratov et al. (Yahoo 2014 Breach / FSB Officers)
Conspiracy between Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and criminal hackers to breach Yahoo's network, compromising 500 million user accounts to conduct espionage against journalists, government officials, and commercial executives.
U.S. v. Andrei Tyurin (JPMorgan Chase Data Breach)
Russian hacker who penetrated JPMorgan Chase and eleven other major U.S. financial institutions and media companies, stealing personal data belonging to over 100 million customers to fuel securities pump-and-dump schemes.
U.S. v. Peter Levashov (Kelihos Botnet)
Russian operator (Severa) of the notorious Kelihos botnet, controlling over 100,000 infected computers worldwide used to harvest credentials, distribute ransomware, and blast billions of spam and stock pump-and-dump emails daily.
U.S. v. Aleksandr Brovko (Botnet Parsing & Credential Sales)
Russian national who developed automated scripts to parse botnet logs, extracting financial information and account credentials from thousands of victim computers and marketing them on cybercrime forums.
U.S. v. Sergey Medvedev et al. (Infraud Organization)
Global cybercrime enterprise operating under the slogan 'In Fraud We Trust' with over 10,000 members, trafficking in stolen identities, counterfeit documents, compromised credit cards, and banking trojans.
U.S. v. Tyler Barriss (Serial Swatting / Wichita Incident)
Perpetrator of dozens of fraudulent emergency 911 calls and bomb threats across the United States for hire, culminating in a fatal police shooting in Wichita, Kansas, over a Call of Duty video game dispute.
U.S. v. Brett Johnson (ShadowCrew Cybercrime Syndicate)
Pioneering cybercriminal known as 'The Original Internet Godfather' who built and operated ShadowCrew, the prototypical dark web marketplace for trafficking in stolen identities and credit card data.