Queens

NYC Duo Conspired With Russians to Hack JFK Airport Taxi Dispatch System, Feds Say

Allegedly, the hackers charged taxi drivers to cut the taxi queue line -- enabling as many as 1,000 fraudulently expedited trips in a single day

NBC

What to Know

  • Two men are facing charges for allegedly conspiring with Russian nationals to hack the taxi dispatch system at JFK International Airport, charging taxi drivers a fee to cut the taxi line, prosecutors said.
  • Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman are facing two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions in connection to the alleged plot, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John Gay, the Inspector General of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, jointly announced Tuesday.
  • Taxi drivers are required to wait in a holding lot at JFK before they are dispatched to pick up a fare.Β  A computer system ensures that taxis are dispatched in the order in which they arrived.Β The duo conspired with Russian nationals to hack the system and move certain taxis to the front of the line, in exchange for payment.

Two men are facing charges for allegedly conspiring with Russian nationals to hack the taxi dispatch system at JFK International Airport, charging taxi drivers a fee to cut the taxi line, prosecutors said.

Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman are facing two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions in connection to the alleged plot, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John Gay, the Inspector General of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, jointly announced Tuesday.

According to the indictment, from at least September 2019 through September 2021, Abayev and Leyman, who are U.S. citizens residing in Queens and Russian nationals residing in Russia engaged in a scheme to hack the Dispatch System at JFK. 

Taxi drivers are required to wait in a holding lot at the airport before they are dispatched to pick up a customer. A computer system keeps track that taxis are dispatched in the order in which they arrived. The duo allegedly conspired with Russian nationals to hack the system and move certain taxis to the front of the line, in exchange for payment.

As part of the scheme, Abayev and Leyman allegedly charged taxi drivers $10 each time they were moved to the front of the line. Taxi drivers learned that they could skip the taxi queue line by paying the fee to members of the hacking scheme through word of mouth, and the group involved in the alleged scheme offered some taxi drivers fee waivers in exchange for recruiting other taxi drivers to pay the $10 fee to skip the taxi line.

According to prosecutors, over the course of the scheme, Abayev and Leyman enabled as many as 1,000 fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day.

Both Abayev, 48, and Leyman, 48, face 10 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Attorney information for Abayev and Leyman was not immediately known.

Copyright NBC New York
Contact Us