On February 6, in the state of Oregon, the USA, Russian citizen Denis Dubnikov found himself guilty in the case of laundering of funds for the Ryuk extortion group.
Dubnikov was arrested in November 2021 in the Netherlands, and then extradited in the USA in August last year. Together with 13 accomplices, he was accused of laundering funds received during the attacks of extortion software RYUK. The money was laundered on a regular basis since 2018.
The Ryuk Mr. program first appeared in August 2018 and for several years was aimed at a wide range of organizations, including the media, hospitals and schools. It is widely believed that harmony is the predecessor of Conti Mr. program.
Dubnikov found himself guilty of one point of the prosecution: a conspiracy to launder money. According to the Ministry of Justice, such a crime is punishable by deprivation of liberty for up to 20 years in a federal prison and a fine of 500 thousand dollars.
Dubnikov is specifically accused of receiving 35 bitcoins – part of the ransom paid to the attackers with an American company. At that time, in July 2019, 35 bitcoins cost about 400 thousand dollars. Cryptocurrency was converted to Tether coins and sent to the accomplice of Dubnikov, who then converted her to Chinese yuan.
Dubnikov is a co -founder of Coyote Crypto and Eggchange cryptocurrency exchanges. According to Chainalysis, at least 11% of the funds received on the Eggchange platform from 2019 to 2021 were received illegally.
The arrest of Dubnikov will probably contribute to the development of more confusing money laundering schemes and more accurate behavior of cybercriminals. I wonder if this event will somehow affect the general earnings of hackers this year?