US charges Ukrainian, Russian national over ransomware attack, seizes USD 6 million in ransom payments

The US Justice Department has charged two foreign nationals over a recent ransomware attack on businesses and government entities in the United States and seized over six million dollars in ransom payments.

The US Justice Department has charged two foreign nationals over a recent ransomware attack on businesses and government entities in the United States and seized over six million dollars in ransom payments. According to a statement from the US Department of Justice, one of the suspects was from Ukraine and another one from Russia. The latest US actions follow a slew of measures taken to combat ransomware that earlier this year hit big companies, including Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, and crippled fuel delivery for several days in the US Southeast.

Yaroslav Vasinskyi, 22, a Ukrainian national, with conducting ransomware attacks against multiple victims, including the July 2021 attack against Kaseya, a multi-national information technology software company. The department also announced that the seizure of 6.1 million dollars in funds traceable to alleged ransom payments received by Yevgeniy Polyanin, 28, a Russian national, who is also charged with conducting Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware attacks against multiple victims, including businesses and government entities in Texas on or about August 16, 2019.

According to the indictments, Vasinskyi and Polyanin accessed the internal computer networks of several victim companies and deployed Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware to encrypt the data on the computers of victim companies. "The arrest of Yaroslav Vasinskyi, the charges against Yevgeniy Polyanin and seizure of $6.1 million of his assets, and the arrests of two other Sodinokibi/REvil actors in Romania are the culmination of close collaboration with our international, US government and especially our private sector partners," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The statement further said that Vasinskyi and Polyanin are charged in separate indictments with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, substantive counts of damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted of all counts, each faces a maximum penalty of 115 and 145 years in prison, respectively. (ANI)

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