United States v. Ivanov
United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
175 F.Supp.2d 367 (2001)
Aleksey Ivanov (defendant), while living in Russia, allegedly hacked into the Connecticut-based computers of Online Information Bureau, an e-commerce clearinghouse, gaining access to thousands of merchant and consumer financial accounts, then emailed the company threatening to destroy the data unless it paid him $10,000 in protection money. The government charged him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Hobbs Act, and Ivanov moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that all of the charged conduct occurred outside the court's territorial jurisdiction in Russia.
Whether a court may exercise jurisdiction over a defendant indicted for computer hacking and extortion committed entirely from abroad, where the effects of the crimes, including data theft and threats, were felt at a business located within the court's territorial jurisdiction.