On Monday, a Russian man pleaded guilty in an Oregon court to charges related to laundering money for the Ryuk ransomware group. Denis Dubnikov was arrested in November 2021 in the Netherlands and extradited to the U.S. in August. Prosecutors allege that Dubnikov and 13 other unnamed co-conspirators laundered the proceeds of Ryuk ransomware attacks from 2018 to 2021. Ryuk ransomware is believed to be the predecessor to Conti ransomware and has targeted a variety of organizations, including media outlets, hospitals, and school districts. Dubnikov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine. He is accused of receiving 35 Bitcoin, part of a ransom paid to the threat actors by a U.S. company, in exchange for $400,000 in July 2019. He then converted the Bitcoin into Tether coins and sent them to a co-conspirator, who converted them to Chinese yuan. Dubnikov's lawyer claimed that the FBI had "kidnapped" his client after he was refused entry to Mexico while on vacation and sent back to the Netherlands, where he was detained. Dubnikov is the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchanges Coyote Crypto and Eggchange. According to Chainalysis, at least 11% of funds that flowed onto the Eggchange platform from 2019 to 2021 were illicit and risky. Bloomberg reported in 2021 that the company's offices were located in a Moscow tower where several cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of laundering ransomware proceeds are based.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:34:02 +0000