Russian Ringleader Sentenced

A Russian ringleader of a group that sneaked into StubHub users’ accounts and fraudulently bought sought-after tickets has been sentenced in New York to four to 12 years in prison for his role in the more than $1 million scheme.

Vadim Polyakov pleaded guilty to money laundering and possessing stolen property and was sentenced Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Polyakov led a pack of cyberthieves who commandeered over 1,000 StubHub accounts and used credit card information to buy tickets to Broadway shows, sports events and concerts. The group then resold the tickets and pocketed the money.

Polyakov was arrested while vacationing in Spain and was extradited to the U.S. last year.

San Francisco-based StubHub says it was alerted to the problem, contacted authorities and gave refunds to the affected customers.