Ex-League of Legends team owner charged with running the “largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States”

Former owner of Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends pro team Moscow 5, Dmitry ‘ddd1ms’ Smilianets has been charged with running an intricate hacking network. The group consisting of five other Russian and Ukrainian nationals is said to have stolen at least 160 million debit and credit card numbers and as a result hundreds of millions of dollars.

As reported by PCGamesN  Smilianets was arrested in July 2012 in a global operation by the FBI’s cyber-crime unit after which his team split up. Seemingly Smilianets has not given up the business.

US Attorney Paul Fishman has said that the case is the “largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States”. The five suspected hackers reportedly took hold of corporate data, leaving their own little note to let the companies know they were owned. “NASDAQ is owned.” Read one of the notes.

Smilianetss lawyer Bruce Provda aid that the young man faced “a rather complex international charge of hacking” and expects that if the case goes to trial, it will be a lengthy one.

Moscow 5’s Dota 2 team didn’t survive the ordeal last year, they disbanded in September. This January the manager Konstantin ‘groove’ Pikiner shut down the eSports Organisation and reformed the LoL team as Gambit Gaming.