U.S. officials say a Russian national is in custody on charges linked to the theft and resale of tens of thousands of consumer credit card numbers.
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Roman Valerevich Seleznev, appeared Monday in a U.S. court in Guam, where he was ordered held while awaiting another hearing July 22.
The U.S. Justice Department provided no details on the circumstances of Seleznev's arrest, but authorities say he was charged in a secret 2011 indictment that remained sealed until his capture Saturday at an undisclosed location.
That indictment alleges Seleznev installed malicious software to steal credit card numbers from an array of retail computer systems, including restaurants and other outlets in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington.
It accuses Seleznev of stealing more than 200,000 credit card numbers between November 2010 and February 2011. It also alleges he and his partners sold 140,000 of those numbers on underground websites, in a scheme that generated about $2 million in profits.
Authorities say Seleznev is known as "Track2" in the computer hacking world.
