[3] In October 2008, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission moved to freeze the assets of individuals involved with the Mega-D botnet, though Nikolaenko's identity was not yet known at the time.

[3] Federal agents used grand jury subpoenas to trace financial payments of $459,000 from convicted New Zealand spammer Lance Atkinson to Nikolaenko, who had been using the alias of "Docent".

Nikolaenko, who had been in Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the 2009 SEMA auto show, was forced to return to Russia two days early to undo the damage to Mega-D's functionality.

Nikolaenko was transported to face charges in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where an undercover agent ordered Viagra from an alleged e-mail spam and instead received herbal pills.

"[2] Wagner requested that Nikolaenko be released on bail as his wife and daughter were planning to travel from Moscow to the United States to attend the trial.

[9] Spam e-mail traffic dropped sharply worldwide during the 2010 holiday period while Nikolaenko was detained, though Paul Wood of computer security firm Symantec attributed the downturn to the disruption of various other botnets, including Rustok, Lethic and Xarvester.