Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian national, has been sentenced to 13 years and seven months imprisonment for being involved in a ransom group that carrying out over 2,500 ransomware attacks and demanding over $700m in ransom payments. He has also been ordered to pay more than $16m in restitution.
Vasinskyi, 24, also known as Rabotnik, conducted the attacks using the ransomware variant Sodinokibi/REvil, and demanded ransom payments in cryptocurrency.
“Deploying the REvil ransomware variant, the defendant reached out across the globe to demand hundreds of millions of dollars from US victims,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Laundered crypto
Vasinskyi and his co-conspirators then laundered the ransom through cryptocurrency exchanges and mixing services.
To push the ransom demands further, the users of Sodinokibi/REvil also published victim’s data if they would not pay the ransom demands.
“Yaroslav Vasinskyi and his co-conspirators hacked into thousands of computers around the world and encrypted them with ransomware,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Then they demanded over $700 million in ransom payments and threatened to publicly disclose victims’ data if they refused to pay.”
“Deploying the REvil ransomware variant, the defendant reached out across the globe to demand hundreds of millions of dollars from US victims.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
In 2022, Vasinskyi also pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Texas to an 11-count indictment with charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, damage to protected computers, and for conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was also extradited to the US from Poland.
“We will continue to relentlessly pursue cyber criminals like Vasinksyi wherever they may hide, while we disrupt their criminal schemes, seize their money and infrastructure, and target their enablers and criminal associates to the fullest extent of the law,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
In 2023, the DOJ managed to obtain millions of dollars’ worth of ransom payments through two related civil forfeiture cases, which included $6.1m in US dollars and 39.89138522 bitcoin.