The Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg issued the first sentence in Russia for cybercrime in the gaming industry: programmer Andrey Kolmakov was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for selling cheats and bots for the games World of Tanks and World of Warships. It is reported by "Kommersant".
According to the 66.ru portal, Kolmakov will not be able to leave Yekaterinburg and change his place of residence during this period. He was charged with Part 2 of Art. 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs).
In 2014, the Russian was left without work and began to earn money repairing computers at home, and in his spare time he played World of Tanks. He wrote a cheat code for the game (to add features to the player that were not provided by the creators of the game), which made it possible to auto-aim at the weakest point of the enemy's armor. The gamer posted the program in the public domain, and later created the Ciber Tank website, through which he began selling the cheat. Kolmakov also wrote a similar cheat for World of Warships.
According to the investigation, the amount of damage from his actions amounted to 670 million rubles. At the same time, the game developer Wargaming refused to make demands on Kirsanov. During the meeting, a representative of the company said that the amount of damage differs from that provided by the investigation, but did not name it. “The company refused to file claims. Why? I can't explain. Circumstances have changed, ”the 66.ru portal quoted him as saying.
Kirsanov pleaded guilty, but added that he should not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. The state prosecutor requested 1.5 years in prison for him.
