Federal prosecutor, special agent honored for cyber work

A Las Vegas-based federal prosecutor and a Homeland Security agent have been honored for their work on a global cyber-crime investigation, the U.S Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Nevada Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Frayn received the William D. Neumann Prosecutor of the Year Award, for her prosecution of members of “Carder.su,” an “international cybercrime organization,” the DOJ said in a statement.

“Operation Open Market” has so far resulted in criminal charges for 56 people, the release said. Twenty-five have been convicted, while others are fugitives or have pending trials in Las Vegas, the DOJ said.

Michael Adams, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations special agent from Las Vegas, received the Cyber Investigations Contributor of the Year award for his hands-on work in the operation, the DOJ said.

Adams infiltrated the 4,000-plus member organization early on, the DOJ said.

Through web forums hosted within the former Soviet Union, the organization was involved in a “large-scale” fraud scheme that handled compromised credit card information and counterfit identities, as well as money laundering, and various forms of trafficking and cybercrime, the DOJ said.

Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites.