The owner of the T-Mobile communication salon was given 10 years in prison

The man ran an illegal business of unlocking smartphones from cellular networks using T-Mobile's internal systems.

Former T-Mobile retail store owner Argishti Khudaverdyan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a scheme to unlock mobile phones by hacking into T-Mobile's internal systems. In total, illegal operations brought the man more than $ 25 million.

Between August 2014 and June 2019, the 44-year-old man unlocked hundreds of thousands of mobile phones for his "clients". At the same time, in June 2017, T-Mobile, suspecting something was wrong, canceled the contract with the enterprising American - the operator drew attention to the suspicious activity of Khudaverdyan's computer in the company's network.

Together with his former business partner and cell phone shop co-owner Alain Garekhbaglu, Khudaverdyan gained access to T-Mobile's internal computer systems using credentials stolen in phishing attacks from more than 50 different operators' employees, investigators report.

The stolen data was used to access the operator's internal computer systems and, in many cases, to reset a password that blocked account holders from accessing the system.

According to the US Department of Justice, using stolen data and IMEI numbers, Khudaverdyan and his partner unlocked hundreds of thousands of smartphones on Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

The scammers advertised "premium direct unlock services for all mobile carriers" in various ways, including mailing lists and messages on sites such as unlocks247.com, swiftunlocked.com, unlockitall.com, tryunlock.com and unlockedlocked.com.

As explained in a press release from the Ministry of Justice, “unlocking allowed smartphones to be sold on the black market.” In addition, T-Mobile customers were able to stop using the operator's services and thereby deprive him of his income.

T-Mobile sells phones under service contracts. This means that smartphones are tied to the operator, and customers cannot use purchased devices to communicate with other providers.

Khudaverdyan pleaded guilty. In addition to jail time, he must pay $28 million in compensation.

Alen Garehbaglu also pleaded guilty. The verdict is to be announced on February 23, 2023.