Brian Levine

and encrypt the whole machine, and if he didn't decrypt it within a certain amount of time, it would just wipe the whole thing.

He created his own software-based keylogger, so if the FBI or Romania had put something in the computer, it would have detected and alerted that.

So, you know, he was off the charts compared to what we see, even at CSIPS, where it's all very advanced.

But one of the things we learned is these computers still had value even if they were completely encrypted.

So at trial, we were able to show Nicolescu's tower, which had hard drives that you could just pull in and out like a data center, which was not what a normal person would have.

And we were able to have the FBI testify, yes, this was on his desk.

This was his tower when we came in there.

And

You know, we've used all our tools.

We are not able to decrypt any of this.

And that's pretty powerful when you have all this other evidence that this guy is master fraud, because, you know, the jury's looking at this enormous tower of hard drives.

They know this is nothing like their home computer.

They know the FBI, with all its power, can't get into it.

And they're thinking, all right, something's up here.

Yeah.

So at trial, we had some of the money mules testify.

They were victims as well.

In fact, in some ways, they were the most scarred victims based on their testimony.

First of all, what the Bayrob group told them in many cases, they would place advertisements for them on Facebook.

Their machines tended to be infected as well.