Bochner says he tried for years to get federal authorities interested in his case, but without success. If they responded at all to his offers to share information, they told him the case was not a criminal matter, he said. "I'm extremely pleased to see the DoJ finally taking action in this case," Bochner said.

The harm these products cause consumers is immeasurable, he said. "What they're doing is charging you money for a program that doesn't work, on false pretenses, and then destroying your computer in the bargain."

Still, the U.S. authorities have none of the accused in custody. While Jain is believed to be in Ukraine, Sundin is in Sweden, the DoJ says, and Reno is expected to turn himself in "at a later date."

In a move that might help U.S. authorities prosecute their case overseas, the Department of Justice quietly filed international money laundering charges against Jain in federal court in New York last week. The charges allege that Jain moved millions of dollars overseas in an effort to conceal the source of the money he made from his counterfeit Symantec software sales.