A Nigerian citizen, extradited from the United Kingdom, was sentenced in federal court for his role in a conspiracy to sell stolen financial information on the darknet, impacting tens of thousands of victims worldwide.
Simon Kaura received a five-year sentence in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays. The court determined that Kaura’s crimes resulted in an intended financial loss of $6,338,500.
On May 22, 2024, Kaura pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and one count of access device fraud. According to court documents, Kaura admitted his involvement in a sophisticated global operation to obtain and sell stolen financial data on darknet markets. He also participated in the creation and administration of one such market alongside his co-conspirators. Kaura operated under several online aliases, including “apples,” “applepiecards,” “cartman,” and “dpharoah.”
Kaura and his associates were prominent “carding” vendors, dealing in stolen financial information on multiple darknet platforms. These marketplaces operated similarly to traditional e-commerce sites, with the exception that they primarily facilitated criminal activities. All transactions on these platforms were conducted using digital currencies like Bitcoin. These darknet markets enabled the global distribution of illegal contraband, including stolen financial information, which facilitated widespread fraud.
Kaura and his co-conspirators obtained large volumes of stolen financial data and worked together to verify, organize, and sell this information on various darknet sites. Their activities affected victims in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The group was responsible for executing tens of thousands of illegal transactions between February 22, 2016, and October 1, 2019.
As part of the conspiracy, Kaura and his associates launched and managed their own darknet market called Skynet, which operated from April 2016 to October 2019. Skynet not only sold stolen financial data and other illegal items but also provided a messaging platform and private messaging services, which allowed cybercriminals to communicate openly about their activities.
One of Kaura’s co-defendants, Taylor Ross Staats, 41, of Texas, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on January 25, 2024, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud. Staats’s primary responsibility in the scheme was verifying whether the stolen payment cards were still active and usable before they were posted for sale. Staats operated under the alias “f9ac4.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice are actively seeking the forfeiture of over $4.5 million in proceeds gained from these criminal activities.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas Heberle, Matthew Blackwood, and John Constance from the Western District of Missouri, along with Trial Attorneys Michael Christin and Louisa Becker from the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. The FBI led the investigation.
