3 Latvian men deny role in extortion plot

GREAT FALLS (AP)

Three Latvian men accused of taking part in an extortion plot against the Great Fallsbased financial services company D.A. Davidson pleaded not guilty to several charges Monday. Aleksandrs Hoholko, 29, Jevgenijs Kuzmenko, 25, and Vitalijs Drozdovs, 33, denied charges of conspiracy, extortion affecting commerce, as well as threatening communications and receipt of extortion proceeds. A grand jury returned an indictment in March 2008 charging the three men along with a man identified in court documents as "John Doe, aka Robert Borko." Case files were unsealed Monday. Court documents say Borko hacked into the company's computer system sometime between Dec. 20, 2007, and Jan. 11, 2008, and sent e-mails to Davidson requesting money in exchange for deleting the records of the more than 300,000 client files he accessed. Hoholko, Kuzmenko and Drozdovs are accused of helping Borko retrieve funds wired from Montana to the Netherlands, according to court documents. U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer declined to comment on Borko's whereabouts or if he has been arrested. The three Latvian men were extradited from the Netherlands and arrived in the United States Thursday. They are currently detained. D.A. Davidson sent letters to clients in January 2008 after the computer breach, and company spokeswoman Jacquie Burchard said the information did not include Account numbers. "At this point, we understand and believe no one has had an identity theft leading back to this incident," she said. "We appreciate law enforcement's efforts in chasing after these individuals.