Internet Fraud Casebook

Chapter 30. Behind The Mask

CHRISTIAN ANDRÉ CHMIEL

Czeslaw Ovseenko was a very elusive man. Both Internet research and official inquiries sent to authorities failed to uncover much information about him. In fact, he was barely more than a phantom. There was nothing distinguishing about him, and he kept himself hidden in the background. The photograph in his passport — the only known picture of him — showed a 33-year-old Ukrainian citizen with a face like a child's. But whether the photo really depicted Czeslaw Ovseenko or an imposter, no one knows. Even his residence at the time of this case was uncertain. It was assumed that he was either in Malta, Ukraine or Russia.

But one thing was certain — Ovseenko had to be a technically skilled programmer who was familiar with the production of highly sensitive and complicated software. Even if people did not know his name, the name of his software program was well-known to millions of Internet users. It was so famous that one of the leading software manufacturers offered a bounty of $250,000 for him. Why? Ovseenko not only had broad knowledge in the field of software programming, but he also had a high degree of criminal energy.

Online Sys-Tec Limited, based in Malta, was a software company that specialized in the development, programming and sale of antivirus software. It was founded by a group of software developers and programmers who previously worked together on a large technology project. The majority shareholder in Online Sys-Tec was ...