AC-2024-LON-001762 - [2025] EWHC 2293 (Admin)

On 6 May 2021, a warrant for the arrest of the Claimant was issued by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in the USA and, on 21 December 2021, an Interpol red notice relating to him was circulated by the US National Central Bureau in Washington.

On 31 January 2022, on the basis of the Interpol notice, the National Crime Agency issued a provisional arrest certificate pursuant to section 74B(2) of the 2003 Act and, later that day, the Claimant was arrested at Gatwick on an inbound flight from Portugal. He was apparently intending to visit his mother here.

The Claimant was produced before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 1 February 2022. He did not consent to extradition to the USA and was remanded in custody pending the preparation of the extradition request. On 29 July 2022, the Claimant was granted bail but was then remanded in custody pending an appeal by the USA, which was dismissed on 2 August 2022.

On 23 March 2022, the full USA extradition request was issued (“the Request”). The Request was certified by the SSHD on 31 March 2022 pursuant to section 70 of the 2003 Act.

The indictment on which the Claimant is intended to be tried comprises 6 counts: conspiracy to commit and/or to aid and abet device fraud (Count 1); using or trafficking in an unauthorised access device (Count 2); possession of fifteen or more unauthorised access devices (Count 3); unauthorised solicitation of a person for the purposes of offering an access device (Counts 4 and 5); and aggravated identity theft (Count 6). He faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of Counts 1-5 if convicted, and up to 2 years on Count 6.

As explained in the affidavit, in support of the Request, of Ms Carina Cuellar, Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, dated 17 March 2022, the US authorities allege that, from around 1 January 2015 to 31 January 2022, the Claimant controlled and was the chief administrator of www.raidforums.com (“RaidForums”). RaidForums was a website hosted on a server located outside the USA, which the Claimant operated with the assistance of other website administrators. He described himself as the website’s ‘owner’ and he was known online as ‘Omnipotent’, ‘Downloading’, ‘Shiza’ and ‘Kevin Maradona’.

RaidForums was a platform on which members could sell and purchase databases of hacked personal details, hacking tools, and a range of illegal services including hacking services. The platform included a number of different forums, such as ‘Cracking’, ‘Leaks’ and ‘Marketplace’, and the ‘Leaks’ forum had a sub-forum called the ‘Leaks Market’, which described itself as a ‘place to buy/sell/trade databases and leaks’, including bank details, card verification codes, card expiration dates, and usernames and passwords for access to online accounts issued by US entities.

It was possible for a person to access RaidForums without being a member, although membership was required if a person was to be able to sell or purchase items. RaidForums sold ‘credits’ to members, which granted them access to privileged areas of the website and enabled them to ‘unlock’ and download stolen personal data, often from compromised databases such as customer and subscriber lists from large US companies. Credits could be purchased with cryptocurrency, although from November 2021 it was also possible to pay through PayPal.

It is alleged that the Claimant also offered an ‘Official Middleman Service’ on RaidForums in return for a fee. He would accept cryptocurrency from the purchaser and stolen personal details from the seller, verify the contents of the file(s) and liaise with both parties. Once they were content, he would release the funds to the seller and the stolen data to the purchaser.

It is estimated that, from June 2016, more than 10 billion unique records of individuals living in the United States and elsewhere were trafficked through RaidForums.

Mr Cooper confirmed that the Claimant does not deny the conduct alleged. His case is that, from 2014 until around 2017, by which time he was in Portugal, he was groomed by adults online who coerced him into creating the RaidForums website.