An Armenian man extradited from Ukraine to america has been charged over his alleged function in Ryuk ransomware assaults.
Karen Serobovich Vardanyan was arrested in Kyiv in April, and was extradited to america on June 18. Ukrainian authorities introduced shortly after the extradition {that a} 33-year-old suspected of being concerned in Ryuk ransomware assaults had been arrested and extradited, however his identification was not made public on the time.
The US Justice Division has now revealed that the suspect is Vardanyan. He has been charged with conspiracy, fraud in reference to computer systems, and extortion in reference to computer systems.
He faces as much as 5 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, and a fantastic of $250,000 for every depend. The suspect has pleaded not responsible. He’ll stay in custody till his trial, set to begin in late August.
Vardanyan has been charged alongside Levon Georgiyovych Avetisyan, who can also be an Armenian nationwide going through the identical prices within the US. He has been detained in France and america has requested for his extradition.
Ukrainian nationals Oleg Nikolayevich Lyulyava and Andrii Leonydovich Prykhodchenko, each 53, have additionally been charged, however they continue to be at giant.
In response to the Justice Division, Vardanyan and the others deployed the file-encrypting Ryuk ransomware on a whole bunch of servers and workstations between March 2019 and September 2020.
Ukrainian authorities mentioned the cybercrime gang that Vardanyan was a part of carried out over 2,400 cyberattacks and obtained greater than $100 million in ransom funds.Commercial. Scroll to proceed studying.
The Justice Division mentioned the Armenian nationwide and his accomplices obtained over 1,600 bitcoins from victims, valued at greater than $15 million on the time of fee.
Ryuk has not been within the information in recent times and it’s unclear if the malware nonetheless poses a menace to organizations.
Vardanyan isn’t the primary particular person to be prosecuted in america over involvement within the Ryuk ransomware operation. In 2023, a Russian nationwide who pleaded responsible to prices associated to laundering cash for the ransomware group was sentenced to time served.
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