PORTLAND, Ore.—An alleged cryptocurrency cash launderer was extradited this week from the Netherlands to the USA to face costs within the District of Oregon.
In August 2021, a federal grand jury in Portland charged Denis Mihaqlovic Dubnikov, 29, a Russian citizen, for his position in a global cryptocurrency cash laundering conspiracy.
In accordance with the indictment, between at the least August 2018 and August 2021, Dubnikov and his co-conspirators are alleged to have knowingly and deliberately laundered the proceeds of ransomware assaults on people and organizations all through the USA and overseas. Particularly, Dubnikov and his accomplices laundered ransom funds extracted from victims of Ryuk ransomware assaults.
After receiving ransom funds, Ryuk actors, Dubnikov and his co-conspirators, and others concerned within the scheme engaged in varied monetary transactions, together with worldwide monetary transactions, to hide the character, supply, location, possession, and management of the ransom proceeds.
In July 2019, Dubnikov laundered greater than $400,000 in Ryuk ransom proceeds. These concerned within the conspiracy laundered at the least $70 million in ransom proceeds.
On November 2, 2021, Dubnikov was arrested in Amsterdam pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant.
Dubnikov made his preliminary look in federal court docket within the District of Oregon at the moment earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Jolie A. Russo. He was arraigned and pleaded not responsible. A five-day jury trial is scheduled to start on October 4, 2022.
If convicted, Dubnikov faces a most sentence of 20 years in federal jail, three years’ supervised launch, and a high-quality of $500,000.
First recognized in August 2018, Ryuk is a kind of ransomware software program that, when executed on a pc or community, encrypts information and makes an attempt to delete any system backups. Of be aware, Ryuk can goal storage drives contained inside or bodily linked to a pc, together with these accessible remotely through a community connection. Ryuk has been used to focus on hundreds of victims worldwide throughout quite a lot of sectors. In October 2020, regulation enforcement officers particularly identified Ryuk as an imminent and growing cybercrime menace to hospitals and healthcare suppliers in the USA.
This case was investigated by the FBI. It’s being prosecuted by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Oregon.
Dubnikov’s extradition was dealt with by the Justice Division’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs. He was transferred to the District of Oregon by the FBI.
Justice Division elements who labored on this seizure coordinated their efforts by means of the division’s Ransomware and Digital Extortion Process Drive, which was created to fight the rising variety of ransomware and digital extortion assaults.
The Process Drive prioritizes the disruption, investigation, and prosecution of ransomware and digital extortion exercise by monitoring and dismantling the event and deployment of malware, figuring out the cybercriminals accountable, and holding these people accountable for his or her crimes. The Process Drive additionally strategically targets the ransomware prison ecosystem as an entire and collaborates with home and overseas authorities businesses in addition to non-public sector companions to fight this important prison menace.
An indictment is just an accusation of against the law. The defendant is presumed harmless except and till confirmed responsible past an inexpensive doubt in a court docket of regulation.
