A 29-year-old Russian national named Denis Mihaqlovic Dubnikov has been found guilty for laundering cryptocurrency from the victims. Denis has now been handed over to the U.S government from Netherlands, where he will face the charges on him related to his crime in the Ryuk ransomware operation. Accordingly, his court trial is been scheduled to begin on October 4.
The hackers who were using Ryuk ransomware to extort money from their targets counted on Denis to launder the cryptocurrency gained from victims.
Between August 2018 and August 2021, Dubnikov was actively helping in money laundering through various types of financial transactions to hide the location, source and control of the ransom payments.
Around $70 million was extorted by Denis, along with the money more than $400,000 was obtained for himself in July 2019. Afterwards, in November 2021, he got arrested in the Netherlands and was handed over to the U.S government.
Ryuk ransomware is used in targeted cyberattacks, where the threat actors makes important files encrypted so that they can ask for large ransom amounts. This ransomware was emerged in 2018 and for a few years it was one of the most actively used in cyber operations.
