Crime, Latvia, Legislation, Technology, USA

''Hello everyone. Thank you for your support. I have returned to Riga,'' Calovskis wrote in his ''Facebook'' account.

As reported, a U.S. district court in December convicted Latvian citizen Deniss Calovskis of cyber crimes and sentenced him to twenty-and-a-half months in prison – which he had already served in jail and pretrial custody pending extradition to the United States, Bloomberg reports.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of at least two years, but Calovskis' attorney David Bertan argued that his contribution to the "Gozi" virus was limited and that he did not receive any of the money that was stolen from bank accounts. Furthermore, Calovskis was kept in "extremely harsh conditions" in the Riga Central Prison, Bertan said.

Calovskis, who pleaded guilty last September to a single count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, apologized to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, telling her that he wrote the illegal software to make money during an economic downturn in Latvia. He made USD 1,000 for writing code used in a virus that infected more than a million computers worldwide.

LETA also reported, the "Gozi" virus was discovered in 2007. It stole personal bank account information of computer users while remaining virtually undetectable. By the time U.S. authorities announced charges in 2013, more than a million computers worldwide had been infected, including at least 40,000 in the United States, over 160 of which belonged to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The indictment against Calovskis was unsealed in January 2013 as prosecutors announced charges against Nikita Kuzmin, the virus' Russian creator, and Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a Romanian accused of running a service that enabled its distribution.

Prosecutors said Kuzmin was the mastermind of the operation, conceiving of the virus in 2005 and running a business that rented out the virus to other cyber criminals intent on stealing money from banks.

Prosecutors said Calovskis, who resided in Riga, Latvia, and went online as "Miami", helped develop code that increased the virus' effectiveness by altering the appearance of banks' websites, tricking victims into divulging their information.

Kuzmin, who was originally arrested in 2010, secretly pleaded guilty in May 2011 as part of a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

Pauneschu was arrested in Romania in December 2012. His extradition remains pending.