Russian Cyber-Punk Suspect Snowboards, Lives In Siberia

The young man owns a company called King Servers, which has servers in Moscow, the Netherlands, New Jersey and Fremont, Calif. (where he has never set foot) and says much of his business comes from pornographers. But Vladimir M. Fomenko denies responsibility for the recent hacking of computerized electoral systems in Arizona and Illinois that were said to originate from one of his servers. He says he learned about them after the fact, and when he did he shut down the perpetrators, as he has done previously with clients spreading malware, dealing counterfeits or distributing child pornography. “Every company has their problems,” he says. “You cannot control everything.” He laughs off the notion he’s in cahoots with Russian security, joking that maybe he’ll send a bill to Putin and Donald Trump for unpaid rent owed by some of the hackers he’s shut down.