A Russian man accused of operating an international cybercrime organisation has been arrested in Thailand and will face extradition to the US.

Sergey Medvedev, 31, is accused of co-founding the Infraud Organisation - an online network which focuses on identity theft and financial fraud.

Medvedev was one of the 36 individuals cited in an indictment for racketeering and their involvement with Infraud, which allowed its members to buy and sell credit card and other financial information.

According to US authorities, the conspiracy caused $530m (£380m) of losses during its existence between October 2010 and this February, when a US-led operation shut it down.

Infraud had 10,901 members when it was closed down, according to US authorities, 13 of whom were arrested in February across a number of countries including the US, France, Australia, Italy, Kosovo, Serbia, and the UK.


Sealed charges were filed against these suspects and 23 others on 31 October 2017, although the seal on those court documents has now been lifted.

After the disappearance of his co-founder Svyatoslav Bondarenko in 2015, Medvedev became the sole leader of the organisation - members of which were banned from stealing anything belonging to victims within Russia.

Medvedev is now "being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison waiting for US authorities to take him for prosecution in the US," according to Nuthapon Rattanamongkolsak, an officer from Thailand's Crime Suppression Division.

He had frequently travelled in and out of Thailand over the past six years on tourist visas, said Mr Rattanamongkolsak.

"He has no real job here and spent his life as any other tourist," the officer added, stating that it was expected that Medvedev will be extradited within a month.