Cyprus, after amending its constitution in 2013, extradited for the first time to the United States of America, a Cypriot hacker wanted for fraud and blackmail.
The United States Department of Justice had requested the extradition from the Republic of Cyprus of two criminals found on the territory of Cyprus. One is accused of being a hacker computers and is suspected of hacking and extortion on the internet and the other is accused of money laundering with links to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.
Both suspects, Nicosia resident Joshua Polloso Epifaniou, 21, and Lebanese Gassan Diant, 37, were arrested in Cyprus in recent years and extradited to the United States last weekend.
According to the indictment, Epifaniou carried out a brute force attack against the Ripoff Report (ROR) web portal in October 2016 and replaced the password of an existing ROR employee account, thereby gaining access to base given her.
The site Ripoff Report allows users over the age of 14 to anonymously complain about any company or person. The site requires account creation before submitting “reports”, but does not verify the identity of users. Her reports Ripoff Report may appear in Google searches for individuals (or companies) listed in the protests, which can be potentially annoying or damaging to them.
In November 2016, Epifaniou attempted to blackmail the company by sending an email to ROR's CEO with a link to a video that demonstrated Epifaniou's unauthorized access to account of the CEO of ROR. He demanded $90.000 within 48 hours not to publicly share the stolen ROR data.
From October 2016 to May 2017, Epifaniou also partnered with an SEO Company partner to illegally remove complaints posted on the ROR website on behalf of those interested and willing to pay around 3.000 to 5.000 dollars,
According to court documents, Epifaniou and his associate removed at least 100 complaints from the ROR database on behalf of their "clients".
Apart from ROR, Epifaniou has also been accused of violating and blackmailing various websites, between October 2014 and November 2016.
Epifaniou allegedly hacked the websites and collected $56.850 in bitcoin, while victims suffered losses of more than $530.000 in recovery costs related to the incidents.
Epifaniou is the first Cypriot national to be extradited from Cyprus to the United States. Cyprus amended its Constitution in 2013 to allow the extradition of Cypriot nationals to a European country or a third country under a European arrest warrant or under a bilateral or multilateral treaty. In 2003, the United States and the European Union concluded an extradition agreement.
Also, a Lebanese citizen named Ghassan Diab, 37, was extradited from Cyprus to Florida on Friday, as he is wanted by the US Department of Justice as a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based militant group for money laundering.
