Two Americans were detained for allegedly collaborating with Russian hackers to hack the taxi dispatch system at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in order to advance certain taxis in line in exchange for a $10 fee. ABAYEV and LEYMAN were arrested this morning in Queens, New York, and will be presented this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.

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From at least September 2019 through September 2021, ABAYEV and LEYMAN, who are U.S. citizens residing in Queens, New York, and Russian nationals residing in Russia (the “Russian Hackers”), engaged in a scheme (the “Hacking Scheme”) to hack the Dispatch System at JFK.

At all relevant times, taxi drivers who sought to pick up a fare at JFK were required to wait in a holding lot at JFK before being dispatched to a specific terminal by the Dispatch System.  Taxi drivers were frequently required to wait several hours in the lot before being dispatched to a terminal and were dispatched in approximately the order in which they arrived at the holding lot.

Beginning in 2019, ABAYEV and LEYMAN explored and attempted various mechanisms to access the Dispatch System, including bribing someone to insert a flash drive containing malware into computers connected to the Dispatch System, obtaining unauthorized access to the Dispatch System via a Wi-Fi connection, and stealing computer tablets connected to the Dispatch System.

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The Hacking Scheme also used large group chat threads in order to communicate with taxi drivers.  For example, when the Hacking Scheme had access to the Dispatch System for the day, a member of the Hacking Scheme would message the group chat threads, “Shop open.”

ABAYEV and LEYMAN’s scheme resulted in large numbers of taxi drivers skipping the taxi line. Over the course of the scheme, they enabled as many as 1,000 fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day. ABAYEV, 48, and LEYMAN, 48, both of Queens, New York, are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.  The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.