The US Department of Justice presented accusations to Timur Shakhmmetov in connection with the work of the now non-existent forum of the Joker’s Stash carders. The accused (used the nicknames of JokerStash and Vega) launched the forum in October 2014 and stopped working in February 2021, two months after Interpol and the FBI confiscated part of the servers used to maintain the platform.
By estimates from Eliptic, the activities of Joker’s Stash brought in $280 million to $1 billion thanks to more than 40 million stolen payment card data. Over the years, Joker’s Stash and its founder played an important role in the cyber resident community, and from 2017 to 2020, the site became an epicenter for the sale of stolen cards, attracting the attention of the FBI.
However, despite the termination of the forum, the US authorities do not intend to allow Shakhmetov to continue their activities. The US Department of State announced that two Russian Nationals, including Shakhmetov, are being targeted for involvement in illicit Russian virtual currency exchanges and cybercrime facilitation.