A U.S. based Darknet Kingpin has pleaded guilty in a Missouri court to operating a darknet carding site. Also selling financial information belonging to thousands of victims in the country.
Darknet Kingpin, Michael D. Mihalo, also known as ggmccloud1, was charged with founding Skynet Market. A carding site that specialized in the sale of credit and debit card information.
Mihalo and his associates also peddled their warez on other dark web marketplaces. Such as AlphaBay Market, Wall Street Market, and Hansa Market. This was between February 22, 2016, and October 1, 2019.
“Mihalo assembled and directed the team that helped him sell this stolen financial information on the darknet,” . The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a press statement released on May 16, 2023.
“Mihalo personally possessed, sent, and received the information associated with 49,084 stolen payment cards with the intent that the payment card information would be trafficked on darknet sites, all in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Taylor Ross Staats, one of the defendant’s accomplices, worked as a “card checker,”. It was the responsibility to make sure that the financial data on sale was still accurate. Also to make sure it hadn’t been revoked by the relevant financial institutions.
Staats is estimated to have earned at least $21,000 worth of Bitcoin for these services. He plead guilty. On December 14, 2022, to one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud for this role in the operation. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
According to the Justice Department, Mihalo, a 40-year-old native of Illinois, made more than $1 million in cryptocurrency through the schemes.
The defendant pleaded guilty to:
- One count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, which carries a prison term up to five years;
- One count of access device fraud;
- Six counts of money laundering, each of which carry up to 10 years of jail time. He also was ordered to give up all the illicit proceeds.
A prominent Russian platform called Try2Check was also taken down. This was done earlier this month by American officials. Cybercriminals used this platform to confirm the accuracy of credit card data .