A Russian man has pleaded guilty in a US court to taking part in a computer hacking scheme involving the theft and sale of 160 million credit and debit card numbers.
Vladimir Drinkman entered the plea in the District Court of Camden, New Jersey, as he admitted being involved in the scheme between 2005 and 2012.
One of the main corporate targets of the scheme was Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems Inc.
The value of the scam is reported to be around $300m (£195m).
The 34-year-old will be sentenced on 15 January and faces up to 35 years in jail, followed by deportation.
The case was described in 2013 by US Attorney Paul Fishman as the largest hacking scheme in the US ever to go to court.
Three other Russians and a Ukrainian were also charged in connection with the fraud - two of them are not yet in custody.
The hacker, who originally pleaded not guilty to the charge, was first arrested in Amsterdam in 2012 and subsequently extradicted to the US.
He was accused of hacking through online security to steal passwords and credit card numbers and then handing the details over to an associate who would sell the numbers on.
