Michael Winter

USA TODAY

Russia is accusing the Obama administration of kidnapping a lawmaker's son who was arrested in the Maldives for allegedly hacking U.S. restaurant and store computers to steal more than 200,000 credit- and debit-card numbers.

Secret Service agents seized Roman Seleznev, 30, on Saturday and whisked him away to Guam, where he is being detained after a hearing Monday in federal court. A July 22 hearing is set for his transfer to Seattle, where a grand jury indicted him in March 2011.

His father, Valery, is a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party in Russia's lower house of Parliament.

"Cybercrooks should take heed: You cannot hide behind distant keyboards. We will bring you to face justice," said U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Seleznev was bundled aboard a private jet by U.S. agents as he prepared to fly back to Moscow after vacationing in the Indian Ocean islands. Russian officials were not notified beforehand, the statement said.

"It's not the first time that the American side essentially kidnapped a Russian citizen, ignoring the bilateral treaty of 1999 about mutual legal assistance in criminal cases," the statement continued. "We are treating the episode as the latest unfriendly step by Washington."

"We demand that the Maldives' government provides necessary explanations," the Foreign Ministry said.

Seleznev is accused of bank fraud, identify theft and installing malicious software on point-of-sale computers at retailers, restaurants and financial institutions across the United States over 18 months. He also has been indicted in Nevada under the federal Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.

The indictment says Seleznev — known in the cyber underground as "Track2" — and his associates worldwide sold more than 140,000 credit card numbers in online forums for at least $2 million. Banks and other financial institutions lost more than $1.2 million between between October 2009 and February 2011.

The cybergang hit restaurants in Seattle and across western Washington, a deli in Idaho, a jewelry store in Maine, a bar in New York, a theater in Arizona, a software firm in Maryland, a pizza parlor in California, convenience stores in Illinois — and the Phoenix Zoo.

One victimized Seattle restaurant, the Broadway Grill, blamed the fraud for its demise last year.

Krebs on Security has details about the underground operation and what are known as carding shops.