JAMES B. COMEY, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the arrest of WOLF RAINES, a/k/a "Emil Nagdimunov," a/k/a "Kevin Trust," 30, of Brooklyn, New York, on charges of criminal copyright infringement for selling various copyrighted computer software titles over the Internet from his own websites.

According to the one-count Complaint, RAINES, operating from his residence in Brooklyn, offered for sale hundreds of different computer software titles from the websites at http://come.to/wvh2002/ and http://wvh.0catch.com for fractions of the legitimate manufacturers' retail prices. RAINES charged anywhere from $9 to $79 for illegal copies of software titles that retailed for as much as $5,000.

As described in the Complaint, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Squad, acting in an undercover capacity, contacted RAINES at the email address identified on RAINES' websites and negotiated with RAINES the purchase of Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server (operating system software) and Autodesk AutoCAD 2002 (computer aided design software) for a total of $108. IN his email correspondence with the FBI agent, RAINES used the name "Kevin Trust." RAINES sent the agent three CD-R's containing the requested software titles, along with the product keys necessary to operate the software, and had the agent wire the funds to RAINES under his current legal name "Wolf Raines" and his previous legal name "Emil Nagdimunov."

According to the Complaint, RAINES conducted another transaction with the undercover FBI agent in which he sold the agent 14 software titles from various manufacturers including Microsoft, MacroMedia, Quicken, Symantec, and Solidworks for a total of $256. Again, RAINES allegedly mailed the agent the software titles on CD-R's. As described in the Complaint, in addition to his pirated software sales in the United States, RAINES' bank account records and PayPal records reflect his sale of additional software titles throughout 2001 and 2002 to various purchasers in Germany, Spain, Vietnam and Venezuela.

If convicted, RAINES faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Mr. COMEY praised the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Squad, and also thanked the Business Software Alliance for its assistance.

Assistant United States Attorney MARK F. MENDELSOHN is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

03-177

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