The district court of the Turkish city of Antalya has sentenced 26-year-old Kharkiv resident Maxim Yastremskyy to 30 years in prison. The man stole money from the accounts of clients of Turkish banks.
Maxim was detained on July 26, 2007 at a disco in the resort town of Kemer on the Mediterranean coast. The local newspaper Sabah wrote that during a search of the man and his friend Maxim Turchak, the police seized two forged passports and two laptops. They contained information on 5,000 credit card holders from the U.S. and EU countries. Yastremsky, aka hacker Maxik, hacked credit cards via the Internet and transferred money to his accounts in 13 countries. In this way, he allegedly stole $11 million. During the investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice sought Yastremsky’s extradition to America to try him under its laws.
– For us, the arrest was like a thunderbolt! No one could tell us why our son had been arrested. They said that Maxim was suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda terrorists and of being involved in the terrorist attack in America on September 11, 2001. It seemed that American special services had been hunting for him for six years. The investigation lasted two years. All the time we hoped that this nightmare would end. I can’t imagine how our son could be accused of such a thing,” says Maxim’s father, entrepreneur Leonid Yastremsky, 54. – What al-Qaeda?! My son was 19 at the time, a student.
Maxim lived with his mother and father in a 9-story building in the Saltovsky residential area in Kharkov. He graduated from the local aviation institute. He is a specialist in computer technologies. Father Leonid Stepanovich has his own firm, which deals with computer networks. Mother Tamara Anatolievna is an English teacher.
– He studied well both at school and at the institute. He was a few points short of a red diploma,” says Tamara Anatolievna. – But Maxim is not a hacker. He is so fidgety that he could never learn and solve anything in his life. I know him. He’d rather do something quickly and run somewhere.
Maxim was a few points short of a red diploma
The parents do not know where the data on credit card numbers and codes appeared in their son’s computer. The Yastremskys assume that it could have been the computer of Maxim Turchak, a fellow Israeli citizen. He was also detained. But later he was released – representatives of his country stood up for Turchak.
The Antalya court found Maxim Yastremsky guilty of stealing from 12 banks in Turkey. For each episode they gave 2.5 years in prison. A total of 30 years.
– That’s too harsh a charge. We appealed. But we were told that, according to Turkish law, an appeal can be pending for ten years! – Leonid Yastremsky says. – We appealed to the Ukrainian Ombudsman Nina Karpacheva with a request to help us to consider the appeal faster. We also want Maksim to serve his sentence in Ukraine. Especially since he has health problems. He does not eat anything, he has lost weight. He has a heart condition. And the conditions there are terrible. Maxim tried to commit suicide twice. Tamara and I take turns going there. But how can you fly all the way to Turkey? I’m afraid he can’t stand it.
Source: https://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/scandals-newspaper/_maksim-astremskij-ukral-11-millionov-dollarov/285262