There is no extradition treaty between Russia and the US, Belarus and the US, or Ukraine and the US, so there is no way to arrest those suspects. Instead, the government investigates them and then waits for them to travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with the US. Often, they will be arrested in that country and get extradited to the US for prosecution. If these suspects knew that they were being targeted, they would probably never leave their home country, because as long as they stay home, they are safe. Under normal circumstances, individuals do not know that they are being investigated, and this is very harmful to them.
There is a federal online court system called PACER, which shows every active case and indictment in the system. Anyone—not only an attorney—can open an account and follow a particular case. Many people think that as long as they are not in the PACER system, they are safe. However, this is not necessarily true because when their indictments are sealed, meaning no one knows that they have an indictment, and that indictment only gets unsealed once the person gets arrested for extraditing from a third country.
On occasion, a person will know that they are a suspect in an investigation or about a pending indictment. At that point, they will call me to see if it can be dismissed for some reason, like being “stale,” which is a legal term for being too old. Other people who know that there is an indictment against them may want to travel out of their country without the risk of arrest and extradition, and they may want to resolve their case. There are ways to do that, and I have handled many such cases. Sometimes it can be done through cooperation, and sometimes through immunity (if the suspect has really good information). It may be possible to have an older indictment dismissed if it’s too old, if the witnesses are not available, or if it violates the suspect’s constitutional right to present a defense or to a speedy trial.
Should I Hire an Attorney Beforehand If I Suspect I’ll Be Arrested for a Cybercrime? Will I Look Guilty If I Do So?
An individual should not worry about looking guilty by hiring an attorney; they have a constitutional right to counsel and to remain silent. It’s not something that the government can use against someone during any stage of criminal proceedings. My advice is that anyone who believes they are suspected of cybercrime, or any other crime, should retain counsel and not talk to the police under any circumstances.
A lot of people think that if they just explain to the police what happened, the police will let them go. That is not going to happen. The police are never a suspect’s friends; they will lie, set up props to make them believe something is not there in order to get a confession, use different techniques to try to trick them into incriminating themselves. Absolutely under no circumstances should a person speak with the police when they are being investigated for a crime.
For more information on Indicators of Cybercrime Investigation, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (718) 989-2908 today.