Two Europeans Indicted In US For 2003 DDOS Attacks

narramissic writes "In a continuation of the first successful U.S. investigation ever into DDOS attacks, Axel Gembe, 25, of Germany and Lee Graham Walker, 24, of England were indicted Thursday by a grand jury in Los Angeles, California, on one count of conspiracy and one count of intentionally damaging a computer system. The two men were allegedly hired by Jay R. Echouafni, owner of Orbit Communication, a Massachusetts-based company that sold home satellite systems, to carry out DDOS attacks against two of Orbit's competitors."

Re:Tax Dollars

[Anonymous Coward]

Judging by the fact that the Grand Jury is in California, the crime was committed against a party in another state. Thus federal jurisdiction.

Re:Revoke

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think there will be any repercussions for Orbit, considering they are a Saudi-based company (http://www.zawya.com/cm/profile.cfm/cid1001503/). They couldn't go after the company, so they went after the people. I wish that's how it worked in US corporations.

Re:Revoke

[idontgno]

Maybe he can run a lemonade stand.

Well, right now, he's running... like the fugitive scum that he is.

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/fugitives/cyber/echouafni_s.htm [fbi.gov]

Re:extradition

[spacefiddle]

Lee Graham Walker, a British citizen, and the German malware programmer Axel Gembe have appeared in a federal court in San Francisco...

I'm guessing yes.

This article [heise.de] also notes that Gembe may have been the HL2 thief, and that he's been on the hook for this DDoS attack since 2006: this was just their (first?) court appearance for it.

I have no particular premonition about how this will all turn out. On the one hand, German courts were taking it easy on him as long as he straightened his life out... on the other, the FBI with its "first successful investigation" into a DDoS may wish to make example of. We'll see.

Re:extradition

[neuromanc3r]

You're wrong. Germany does extradite citizens, as long as a couple of conditions are met.

Specifically, the suspect must have committed a crime that is punishable in both countries, must not be tortured or executed after the extradition, needs a fair trial and so on...

Re:extradition

[mapsjanhere]

that's why I went back and looked up the German Grundgesetz.
Artikel 16
(2) Kein Deutscher darf an das Ausland ausgeliefert werden. Durch Gesetz kann eine abweichende Regelung für Auslieferungen an einen Mitgliedstaat der EuropÃischen Union oder an einen internationalen Gerichtshof getroffen werden, soweit rechtsstaatliche GrundsÃtze gewahrt sind.

Re:extradition

[mrvan]

"No German can be extradited to another country. The law can create a different arrangement for extraditions to the EU or an international court, as long as fair trial [rule of law] is guaranteed."

[not a german native speaker, apologies for any mistakes]

Re:Extradition from the UK to US

[CrimsonAvenger]

The difference with extraditing to France is that it works both ways. With the US it unfortunately isn't.

I wish this particular idea would quietly give up the ghost. It's just not true.

There is a valid, reciprocal, extradition treaty between the USA and the UK. The UK has, in addition, ratified a revision to that Treaty that the US Senate hasn't bothered to ratify yet. Which means the revision is valid in the UK (assuming the brits choose to treat it as valid - they don't have to, since it hasn't been ratified here), but the original treaty is still valid in the USA (and in the UK, assuming the brits choose to treat the revision as not yet valid, since it hasn't been ratified by the Senate).

Which means that people can be (and are) extradited to the UK from the USA when the appropriate paperwork is submitted to whatever department of the US government handles such things. Just like happens when the USA wants to extradite someone from the UK.