Defendants Wreak Havoc on JFK’s Electronic Taxi Dispatch System

Two Queens men, Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman, were sentenced to prison for their roles in a scheme to hack the electronic taxi dispatch system at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Abayev, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison, while Leyman, 49, received a two-year sentence.

According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, the defendants’ actions enabled up to 1,000 fraudulent taxi trips daily, causing chaos for honest taxi professionals and impacting fair order.

The scheme, which lasted from September 2019 to September 2021, involved the defendants and two Russian nationals, Aleksandr Derebenetc and Kirill Shipulin, attempting various mechanisms to access the Dispatch System without authorization. They used malware, bribed someone to insert a flash drive containing malware into computers connected to the Dispatch System, and stole computer tablets connected to the Dispatch System.

Abayev and Leyman charged taxi drivers $10 each time they were advanced to the front of the line and transferred part of their profits to Shipulin and Derebenetc. The defendants’ scheme resulted in large numbers of taxi drivers skipping the taxi line, with up to 1,000 fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day.

The case was prosecuted by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and praised the outstanding work of the Port Authority Office of the Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations for their assistance in the investigation.

Abayev and Leyman were also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $161,858.26 in forfeiture and $3,456,169.50 in restitution.

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