Ukrainian sentenced to 35 months for software piracy

10.05.2006
A 28-year-old Ukrainian man, Maksym Vysochanskyy, was sentenced late Monday in federal court in San Jose to 35 months in prison for his role in selling pirated copies of software from Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc., Borland Software Corp. and Microsoft Corp. through Web sites he operated and on eBay, according to Kevin Ryan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

Vysochanskyy in November pleaded guilty to charges of criminal copyright infringement, trafficking in counterfeit goods and prohibited monetary transactions -- all stemming from his global distribution of counterfeit computer software over the Internet between December 2000 and May 2003, Ryan said in a statement. The case is one of the first in the nation to involve an extradition in a prosecution alleging intellectual property offenses, he said.

In 2003, Vysochanskyy was arrested in Thailand on a provisional warrant by the Royal Thai Police with the assistance of law enforcement agents from the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Vyschanskyy's overseas arrest was made possible when U.S. agents, monitoring his e-mail traffic, observed him make plans to travel to Thailand from Ukraine. The agents then flew to Bangkok to meet him, and after contested proceedings, Vysochanskyy was extradited in March 2004 to San Jose to face federal charges.

He has been held in custody as a flight risk since his arrived in the United States.

"This ground-breaking case demonstrates the resolve ... to combat the theft of the nation's intellectual property, whether the threat arises at home or from abroad," Ryan said in the statement. "It also serves as an example to individuals abroad who seek to profit from the theft of our nation's intellectual property that the Department of Justice will vigorously seek their extradition to the United States...."

According to the plea agreement and court records, Vysochanskyy sold counterfeit software on eBay and on numerous Web sites, including cdservice.org, bigcds.net and gold-cds.com, Ryan said. Under the plea agreement, Vysochanskyy admitted that he conducted most of the activity from Ukraine.