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Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, the Russian developer of the SpyEye botnet creation kit, and an associate were on Wednesday sentenced to prison terms by a court in Atlanta, Georgia, for their role in developing and distributing malware that is said to have caused millions of dollars in losses to the financial sector.

Panin, who set out to develop SpyEye as a successor to the Zeus malware that affected financial institutions since 2009, was sentenced by the court to nine and half years in prison, while his Algerian associate Hamza Bendelladj got a 15-year term, according to the Department of Justice.

After infecting victims' computers, cybercriminals were able to remotely control these compromised computers through command-and-control servers, and steal the victims’ personal and financial information using techniques such as Web injects that introduce malicious code into a victim’s browser, keystroke loggers that record keyboard activity and credit card grabbers. The information sent to the servers was then used to steal money from the financial accounts of the victims.

A Northern District of Georgia grand jury returned in December 2011 a 23-count indictment against Panin, who had yet to be fully identified, and Bendelladj. Panin pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count of conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud for his role as primary developer and distributor of the malware, while Bendelladj pleaded guilty in 2015 to a number of counts relating to conspiring to wire and computer fraud and abuse.

Operating from Russia from 2009 to 2011, Panin was charged with conspiring with others, including Bendelladj, also known as Bx1, to develop, market and sell various versions of SpyEye and component parts on the Internet, the DOJ had alleged.