Alleged Hacker Flaunted Wealth -- WSJ
March 16 2017 - 2:02AM
Dow Jones News
Karim Baratov was known as an avid car enthusiast
By David George-Cosh
The man who seems most likely to face prosecution in the Yahoo
Inc. data breach is a 22-year-old Canadian resident who bragged
online about dropping out of high school to pursue an internet
career that apparently enabled him to live luxuriously.
Karim Baratov, a dual Canadian-Kazakh national, was arrested
outside Toronto on Tuesday by police for his alleged role carrying
out hacking assignments for Russian spies and his own personal
financial gain. The indictment alleges Mr. Baratov gained access to
Yahoo and Google email accounts and received payment of about $100
for each password.
According to Mr. Baratov's friends, he lived in a two-story
house located in a tony suburb outside Hamilton, Ontario, and was
known as an avid car enthusiast with an active social-media
presence.
Mr. Baratov flaunted his apparent wealth on his Facebook and
Instagram accounts, showing off exotic cars with vanity license
plates, expensive Rolex watches and top-shelf cigars.
In one post on his Facebook profile, he bragged about getting
suspended from high school in 2013 "for threatening to kill my
ex-friend as a joke." He wrote that he used the time off to set up
his own business, which helped him make enough money to purchase a
BMW and buy a house, before getting expelled from school.
"Everything happens for a reason, and this really changed my life
to better!" he wrote.
Several of his Instagram photos show him flexing his biceps with
various tattoos, including one in binary that translates to "Mr
Karim," which also appears on the license plates of several cars
including a baby-blue Lamborghini.
The luxury items in the photos couldn't be verified as his own,
but U.S. authorities said Mr. Baratov owns at least two luxury
cars, an Aston Martin convertible with the license plate "Mr.
Karim," and a black Mercedes-Benz sedan, both of which are to be
forfeited to the U.S. if he is convicted.
In a picture taken during a meeting of so-called supercar
enthusiasts which he linked to from his Instagram account, Mr.
Baratov was photographed sitting in his Aston Martin. "This car is
comfortable. It's beautiful. It's fast. It's a good balance between
comfort and speed," he told a reporter for The Globe and Mail last
August.
Mr. Baratov often told friends he built websites for Russian
online users. He managed one website similar to Netflix that he
said has about 30,000 subscribers that pay about 17 Canadian
dollars (US$12.61) a month, according to Dillon Kovljenic, who runs
an automotive decal company near Toronto and recently did some work
on Mr. Baratov's cars.
Mr. Kovljenic said Mr. Baratov told him that he immigrated to
Canada from Russia when he was 13 years old and no longer lives
with his parents.
"He looks like the most innocent guy in the world," Mr.
Kovljenic said.
Vadim Polonski, who runs a Toronto-based telecommunications
company, said he frequently encountered Mr. Baratov at various
charity events organized by exotic car enthusiasts over the past
several years. "He's a super nice guy," he said. "I never really
knew what he did [for a living] but I always wondered because it
seemed that he was doing really well."
Migena Skenderaj, a friend of Mr. Baratov who occasionally cut
his hair, said she was surprised to see that he drew a portrait of
her which he later posted on his Instagram account. Mr. Baratov
occasionally posted images of his drawings, which includes luxury
cars, a scene from the movie Titanic, bags filled with cash and
several abstract self-portraits.
An attempt to reach Mr. Baratov for comment was unsuccessful,
and a Canadian government official didn't know if Mr. Baratov
already had retained legal counsel.
Mr. Baratov is due to appear in a Canadian court for a bail
hearing later this week and will face extradition to the U.S.,
officials said. The other three men indicted by U.S. authorities
are believed to be at large in Russia, and the two countries don't
have an extradition treaty.
U.S. authorities charged Mr. Baratov with conspiring to commit
access device fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud, aggravated
identity theft and conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse.
The charges carry sentences ranging from two to 20 years in
prison.
U.S. officials said Mr. Baratov also went by the names Kay,
Karim Taloverov and Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov.
Write to David George-Cosh at david.george-cosh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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