A Russian citizen who federal prosecutors said had helped drain millions of dollars from U.S. bank accounts was extradited from the republic of Georgia to face trial in the state of Georgia, federal officials announced on Tuesday.
The man, Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov, 36, was indicted on Nov. 4, 2025, on about a dozen charges that included bank and wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded not guilty to all counts on Friday during a brief appearance in federal court for the Northern District of Georgia. If convicted on every count, he would face a minimum penalty of two years in prison and at most 175 years.
Mr. Filimonov’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His charges relate to what prosecutors described as a “credential‑harvesting” operation that ran from November 2023 to October 2025 and targeted victims across the country. Mr. Filimonov and others, who the authorities have yet to name, registered domains that mimicked the websites of federally insured financial institutions, according to an indictment.
“The conspirators purchased sponsored search‑engine links to divert unsuspecting banking customers to fraudulent login pages, where victims entered their credentials,” prosecutors said.
The stolen login information was then used to funnel money from victims’ real bank accounts by wire transfers, prosecutors said. The bank information of more than 5,000 people was stolen, including from two banks in Georgia, according to prosecutors.
Since January 2025, the F.B.I.’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received thousands of complaints reporting bank-account-takeover fraud, with reported losses of more than $262 million, prosecutors said.
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