Federal District Court of Brooklyn on November 10 sentenced 41-year-old Russian citizen Alexander Zhukov to ten years in prison and paid compensation in the amount of over $ 3.8 million. He was found guilty of fraud using electronic means and money laundering.

"King of Fraud"

According to investigators, from September 2014 to December 2016, Zhukov ran the Media Methane ad network and implemented a digital ad fraud scheme known as Methbot.

Instead of displaying ads on publishers 'real web pages where users could see them, Zhukov rented over 2,000 computer servers in Texas and the Netherlands, programmed to simulate real Internet users' video views.

The US Department of Justice believes that Zhukov and his accomplices built the technical infrastructure necessary to generate fraudulent advertising traffic.

As the prosecution assures, he called himself "the king of deception."

“The victim companies collectively paid more than $ 7 million for ads that were never actually viewed by Internet users or displayed on real web pages.

Zhukov channeled and transferred the proceeds from this scheme to several personal and corporate bank accounts in Bulgaria, Russia, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Cyprus, ”the Russian’s verdict says.

  • Alexander Zhukov with his wife Svetlana

  • © Photo from personal archive

Legal product

Lawyer Igor Litvak, who represented Zhukov's interests until March 2019, told RT that the case against the Russian was based on the testimony of one witness, despite the fact that the prosecutor's office announced a whole list of victims of Alexander's actions.

“In fact, only one witness spoke out against Zhukov at that time, who still had the correspondence in the chat where they were negotiating.

What Sasha created is a legal product, ”Litvak emphasized.

- In his system, you can analyze data and make statistics, that is, it can be used absolutely legally.

Cheating has nothing to do with it, he was accused of deliberately selling fake traffic under the guise of real traffic. "

According to the lawyer, he warned all customers who bought Internet traffic for sites from Zhukov that all these views would be fake.

At the time of participation in the Litvak case, the prosecutor's office could not present a single contract in court, which would say that real visitors should be behind the transitions to the sites.

“Even at the jury trial, it sounded that he worked with intermediaries of large companies with whom he entered into contracts, and not a single agreement stated that site views would be real, that Internet traffic would be real,” said the former defender of the Russian.

"The FBI took my husband"

Now Alexander Zhukov is being defended by the American lawyer Zakeri Margulis-Okhnum.

In a conversation with RT, he revealed that his client is at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, better known as MDC Brooklyn.

“We are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal some aspects of the trial,” the lawyer explained.

"We plan to file an appeal with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals."

At the same time, the wife of Alexander Zhukov, Svetlana, told RT that the court's verdict could have been more severe.

“We were expecting 15 years in general - in America they give very long terms.

Sasha has been preparing me for this for the last six months, but when I first heard it from him, I almost went crazy, ”the woman admitted.

  • Alexander Zhukov with his wife Svetlana

  • © Photo from personal archive

Alexander was detained on November 6, 2018 in the Bulgarian city of Varna, where he had an apartment.

“A neighbor called me and said that the FBI had taken my husband.

At that time I was in Moscow, and after this news I flew to Bulgaria.

There was a pogrom in his apartment, like in a movie - they took absolutely all the gadgets, even the game console, ”Svetlana recalls.

According to his wife, in the Bulgarian prison, where Zhukov was placed before his extradition to the States, there was not even bed linen, and he could be visited only a few times a month.

“Sasha immediately agreed to extradition.

Because, as I later learned, when the FBI flies in for you, it’s useless to resist.

You have to fly to the USA, ”the woman notes.

According to her, three months after the arrest, Zhukov was transported to the United States.

In the same place, the Russian found the coronavirus pandemic and was vaccinated with Pfizer.

All this time they correspond and call each other daily.

In addition to his wife, Zhukov has a mother and an 18-year-old daughter from his first marriage in Russia.

“Judge Eric Comiti told him at the announcement of the verdict something like the following:“ Alexander, you are very smart and talented, and I wish you to apply your qualities in the future legal business, ”added Svetlana.