(Washington, D.C.) – Continuing its investigation into global credit card fraud rings, the U.S.
Secret Service has identified Vladislav Anatolieviech Horohorin, 27, of Moscow, Russia, as
an alleged co-founder of one of the most sophisticated carding forums, and the first and only
fully-automated card information online vending site.
Horohorin, known by the alias “BadB,” was arrested by French authorities on August 7,
2010, in Nice, France. A federal indictment against Horohorin was unsealed on Wednesday,
August 11, in Washington, D.C., for access device fraud (18 USC 1029), aggravated identity
theft (18 USC 1028A) and aiding and abetting (18 USC 2).
According to the undercover investigation led by the Secret Service, Horohorin was one of
the founders of CarderPlanet, one of several websites taken down in 2004 as part of the
Secret Service’s Operation Firewall investigation, and operated by cyber criminal
organizations to traffic counterfeit credit cards and false identification information and
documents. These websites not only shared information on how to commit fraud, but also
provided a forum by which to purchase such information and tools.
“The network created by the founders of CarderPlanet, including Vladislav Horohorin,
remains one of the most sophisticated organizations of online financial criminals in the
world,” said Michael Merritt, Assistant Director for Investigations. “This network has been
repeatedly linked to nearly every major intrusion of financial information reported to the
international law enforcement community. This arrest illustrates the significance of the
Secret Service’s commitment to traversing the globe in pursuit of online criminals.”
According to court documents, Horohorin, who is a citizen of Israel and Ukraine, allegedly
used online criminal forums such as CarderPlanet, “carder.su,” and “badb.biz,” to sell stolen
credit card information, known as “dumps,” to online purchasers worldwide.
French law enforcement authorities, working with the Secret Service, identified Horohorin in
Nice, France, as he was attempting to board a flight to return to Moscow. Horohorin was
arrested by French authorities on a provisional arrest warrant based upon the U.S. charges.
He is currently being detained in France and is awaiting the completion of extradition
procedures to the U.S.
The investigation was led by the Secret Service’s Cyber Intelligence Section, with key assistance
from the French Police Nationale Aux Frontiers (PAF) and the Netherlands Police Agency
National Crime Squad High Tech Crime Unit. The Secret Service’s Paris Field Office and
resident offices in Amman, Jordan, and The Hague provided critical investigative support. The
FBI’s Atlanta Field Office also provided information that assisted the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service has taken a lead role in mitigating the threat of financial crimes since
the agency’s inception in 1865. As technology has evolved, the scope of the Secret Service’s
mission has expanded from its original counterfeit currency investigations to also include
emerging financial and cyber crimes. Since 2004, with the groundbreaking Operation
Firewall investigation, the Secret Service has aggressively investigated some of the nation’s
largest hacking, identity theft and cyber cases. As an agency within the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, and through a network of 29 U.S.-based and two European electronic
crimes task forces, the Secret Service has established working partnerships in the law
enforcement, business and academic communities to address such issues as protection of
critical infrastructure, Internet intrusions and associated financial crimes.