‘No more crime’: Ancaster’s Karim Baratov out of U.S. federal prison, plans to publish memoir

It was a hot day last summer, when Ancaster's Karim Baratov stood at the threshold of the Rainbow Bridge on the American side of Niagara Falls, felt handcuffs fall from his wrists, and heard a U.S. border agent tell him to go."

He said that was the moment, on June 29, when it hit him.

That feeling ... of regaining my freedom, is impossible to describe," Baratov wrote in an email to the Spectator. It felt as if I was high on drugs; it was intoxicating and surreal."

It was a far different scene just over four years earlier, when an FBI investigation culminated in the arrest of Baratov, then 22, at his home on Chambers Drive, five minutes south of the Meadowlands Cineplex.

He was jailed at Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre and ultimately tried in the U.S. for being an international hacker for hire," as U.S. authorities called him.

In 2018 Baratov was sentenced by a judge in San Francisco to five years in U.S. federal prison, and fined $250,000 (U.S.), for his part in a computer fraud and identity theft operation that led to a security breach at Yahoo in which thousands of webmail accounts were compromised.

U.S. officials said the plan was orchestrated by two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (formerly the KGB), and that Baratov was known by aliases such as Kay, Karim Taloverov, and Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov.

The U.S. court indictment said Baratov employed spear phishing" emails that resembled messages from trusted senders, to encourage recipients to open files or click links which in turn infected their accounts. After hacking accounts of interest to his co-conspirators," Baratov would relay account passwords in exchange for payment.

Soon after Baratov's arrest, his lawyer suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump had personally got involved in the case to make an example of the Ancaster High School graduate, to show that he was tough with Russia.

Baratov agreed to an interview via email with the Spectator, from which quotations in this story are taken, but only responded to a limited number of questions.

He declined to say if he has returned to Hamilton, only conceding that he is living in Ontario. He said concern about harassment of his family is why he is not more specific.

And he said he has finished writing a manuscript for a true crime memoir" he worked on in prison, that he hopes to publish next year. He said he has no expectation of making money off the book: I've always believed that chasing money as a No. 1 priority is a path to failure."

Born in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country that borders Russia and China, he immigrated to Canada with his family in 2007 at age 12, when he started his online adventures," he told the Spectator.

In 2015, at 20, he bought a house in Ancaster, and was collecting exotic cars that included a Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Porsche. When he was arrested on March 14, 2017, police found $31,000 in cash in his house and another $900 in his wallet.

Baratov's lawyer told the Spec recently that his client has learned some hard lessons."

When asked what he has learned, Baratov said: The biggest lesson is to not try to control something I can't. Sometimes patience is the best solution."

In the end, Baratov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, and eight counts of aggravated identity theft.

He served most of his sentence at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center, 90 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh, and his final three months at a facility in that area called Loretto.

He said many inmates are some of the best human beings I've met; very kind, supportive, and generous," but there were also wild events" he witnessed in prison.

A real prison is a dangerous place; people get killed, riots happen, plus there is a lot of injustice from the administration."

Baratov said he has received multiple interview requests from journalists.

I guess my type of fraud was different. Most people don't know exactly what I was doing and how it was profitable without actually stealing anything."

(The Spectator recently received a request from a Russian filmmaker to collaborate on an interview with Baratov, for a documentary series about the history of the Russian hackers movement.")

Baratov did not fight extradition to the U.S. to stand trial, and since he was convicted there, he now lives in Canada without any criminal record, he said, or with restrictions on his freedom, other than being banned from ever entering the U.S.

It's unknown whether Baratov was in a rehabilitation program in U.S. federal prison, or if he has plans to undergo counselling.

These days, I spend time with my loved ones and friends I consider family, go to the gym, and work on my health," he said. One thing about the future I know for sure: no more crime."

When asked if he is concerned he may reoffend, he referenced stories of charismatic white collar criminals who turned their lives around, listing the movies The Wolf of Wall Street," Takedown," and Catch Me If You Can."

I'm not concerned at all about reoffending. I think five years is rehabilitative enough to teach somebody a lesson for life ... I believe people can change and evolve. If you follow up with Jordan Belfort, Kevin Mitnick or Frank Abagnale, in the end they went legit."

Soon after his release from prison, Baratov posted a picture to Instagram - his username is mrkariminal' - of a tattoo he had etched across his chest,noting that it was by a celebrity tattoo artist" who has done ink for Justin Bieber and Angelina Jolie.

When asked why he continues posting flashy images on social media, he said: Most people use Instagram to save and share interesting events and memories. Would you post yourself watching Disney movies in pyjamas? Possibly, but that wouldn't be eventful, right?"

Baratov said he has sent his book manuscript to a literary agent. He said his work on the memoir in a sense started with a daily journal he kept as a teenager, and he worked on it throughout his time in custody.

The working title is Disconnected," which he said came to him while incarcerated in the Barton Street jail, and is an allusion to becoming disconnected from morals, the internet, the world ... I started my online adventures at the age of 12 when I didn't understand a lot about privacy and morals. After a while of getting away with the crimes and all the money, I grew desensitized. Taking a long break by myself and away from the internet helped me re-evaluate my life."

The story is a cautionary tale, he added, for people to see how an obsession with a hobby can lead to something insane and dangerous. I hope people can learn from my mistakes."

Baratov bills it as one with elements that are straight-up embarrassing, but real and honest."

He said he had planned to publish his story many years later, when he is old and dying," but changed his mind.

Since the devil is out of the box, might as well."

Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com