MOSCOW, November 9 - RAPSI. The announcement of the sentence to be handed down to Russian citizen Vladimir Zdorovenin, accused of defrauding U.S. citizens and banks, has been postponed until December 7, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Thursday.

The court has not specified the reasons for the postponement and RAPSI has as yet been unable to get a statement from Zdorovenins attorney.

Zdorovenin was detained in Zurich on March 27 at the request of U.S. prosecutors.

He was extradited to New York and charged on nine counts, including hacking U.S. bank accounts, stealing personal data and defrauding clients of "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Southern District attorney Preet Bharara said the defendant committed fraud as of 2005 from Russia using bogus websites. The prosecution maintains that it has evidence of the crime, including outdoor surveillance, e-mails and testimonies from an undisclosed informer. Zdorovenins son Kirill is also involved in the case.

Zdorovenin admitted his guilt to two of the nine charges against him - criminal collusion and online fraud. However, he has denied committing the other crimes.

The sentence was expected to be passed in June, but the announcement was postponed until the autumn. Now it has been pushed back to December. It was reported previously that these delays were caused by the prosecutors and attorneys requiring additional time to resolve disagreements which arose during when they were drafting several key documents.

The Foreign Ministry has stated that Zdorovenin's case is another attempt by the United States to enforce its legislation against Russian citizens.