A Brazilian man who allegedly sold access to a huge network of compromised PCs has been charged with computer hacking offences in the US.

Leni de Abreu Neto, 35, of Taubate, Brazil, allegedly maintained and leased access to a 100,000-strong botnet network of compromised PCs that he subsequently attempted to sell, according to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in New Orleans. If convicted, Neto faces up to five years imprisonment as well as fines and restitution payments of more than $250,000.

Neto allegedly conspired with Netherlands resident Nordin Nasiri, 19, of Sneek, to sell access to a network of compromised PCs and supply botnet code to a third party for around €25,000 ($37,000). These zombie PCs provided a platform to distribute spam or launch distributed denial of service attacks.

Dutch police cuffed Neto on 29 July, acting on information from the FBI and Brazilian cybercops. He is currently in detention in The Netherlands pending extradition proceedings.

Meanwhile, Neto's alleged co-conspirator Nasiri is being prosecuted by Dutch authorities.

A DoJ statement on the case can be found here. ®

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