Prosecutor: Agents didn’t tamper with Russian man’s computer

SEATTLE – Federal prosecutors are challenging claims by a Russian man charged with hacking into U.S. businesses that U.S. Secret Service agents mishandled his laptop, seized when he was arrested.

The prosecutors say Roman Seleznev’s claims that agents tampered with his computer, or failed to protect it from tampering, are wrong.

Seleznev’s lawyers had filed a motion last week asking the judge to throw out evidence taken off his laptop computer after it was discovered that files were modified and accessed between the time of his arrest and when a search warrant was secured.

But a forensic computer expert who checked the laptop for prosecutors said he checked the device and he the modifications were the result of routine operating system activity, not from human interaction with the operating system.

Prosecutors say Seleznev’s request should be denied.