A lawyer for an Ancaster man of Kazakh origins arrested as one of four suspects in a massive hack of Yahoo emails says the charges against his client may be “politically motivated by the U.S.”

Jag Virk suggested Thursday that his client, 22-year-old Karim Baratov, is being used as a scapegoat by American authorities.

“I believe (U.S. President) Donald Trump is using this to make it appear as if he is going after Russian hackers,” said Virk, one of two lawyers representing Baratov.

“These allegations are from three years ago.”

Baratov maintains his innocence and has no prior criminal record, his lawyer said. He added that people should wait for all the facts to emerge in the case.

The Kazakh-Canadian man is expected to appear in Hamilton Superior Court Friday afternoon by video as part of an extradition process that is likely to unfold over several months.

As of Wednesday afternoon, an extradition hearing hadn’t yet been scheduled.

Extradition hearings are heard before a judge, who reviews a collection of documents called the “record of the case” outlining the evidence, said Daniel Brown, a Toronto criminal lawyer who practises extradition law.

While the hearing, itself, could take place in a few months time, there are a number of “post-hearing applications” that could be brought forward if a judge orders extradition, which could delay the process — sometimes by years, he added.

Before Canada will participate in the extradition process, it has to be established that a related charge exists here and carries with it a potential sentence of two years or more, Brown said.

“Very rarely do they go ahead and arrest somebody and hope they’re going to get the evidence to support the arrest,” he added.

Baratov is accused of being paid by two Russian spies to break into the email accounts of targeted individuals, U.S. Department of Justice alleges.

The U.S. government says a grand jury in California has indicted Baratov and three others, two of them allegedly officers of the Russian Federal Security Service, for computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offences.

Also indicted in the alleged conspiracy, which authorities said began in January 2014, were Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33; Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43, and Alexsey Alexseyevich (Magg) Belan, 29, all Russian nationals and residents.

Dokuchaev and Sushchin are said to be Russian intelligence agents who allegedly masterminded and directed the hacking, the justice department said.

The two men allegedly tasked Baratov with hacking more than 80 accounts in exchange for commissions, according to U.S. authorities, who submitted a provisional arrest warrant to Canadian authorities Mar. 7.

Belan, who had previously been indicted in 2012 and 2013, was named one of FBI’s most wanted cybercriminals in November 2013 but escaped to Russia before he could be extradited from Europe, the department said. It’s not clear whether he or Dokuchaev and Sushchin, will ever step foot in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Russia.

Dokuchaev has been in custody in Russia since his arrest there on treason charges in December, along with his superior and several others. He is accused of passing information to the CIA.

Yahoo, which is based in California, sent an email in September alerting users that their account information — including email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and security questions — had been stolen in a cyberattack two years earlier.

The company said at least 500 million user accounts were affected.

Yahoo is also facing a proposed $50-million class action lawsuit related to the personal information of Canadian users. The representative plaintiff, Natalia Karasik, of Barrie, Ont., heard from the company late last year that her information was stolen in a hack in 2013.

Yahoo also faces class actions in the United States.

Baratov was arrested at his Ancaster home Tuesday morning under the Extradition Act at the request of American authorities and handed over to the RCMP.

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Property records for a house on Chambers Dr. show it was purchased by Baratov and Akhmet Tokbergenov and Dinara Tokbergenova in 2015 for $642,500. A mortgage was taken out for $514,000, which has not yet been paid off.

A three-minute drive away, a home on Moorland Cr., in the same quiet, well-to-do neighbourhood, lists two people with the virtually identical names as the owners on property records: Tokbergenov and Tokbergenova.

That home was purchased in 2011 for $550,000; a $131,000 mortgage was taken out on the property in 2016, records show.

One neighbour said he thought Baratov lived in the Moorland house because he would often see a blue Lamborghini in the driveway that he thinks belonged to him.

Kevin Anstee said he would see the 22-year-old walking up and down the street with friends in the evening and described him as a “friendly enough guy” who said hello when they crossed paths.

While driving a flashy car at his age “raised flags,” most people in the neighbourhood are “well-off” and some don’t work, Anstee added.

“For him to be young and have that kind of car, either he came into money or he had money somehow.”

Another neighbour on Moorland, who didn’t want to be named, said he never talked to Baratov, but he recalled speaking once to a man who lived in the house.

He said the man, who he believed was Baratov’s father, told him his son worked in online investing and web design.

Read more:

Hacker arrests show depth of Trump’s isolation when it comes to Russia

Social media posts detail lavish lifestyle of alleged Yahoo hacker from Canada

Canadian, 22, arrested over massive Russian hack of 500 million Yahoo accounts.

With files from The Canadian Press, Toronto Star and The Associated Press

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