Alleged Russian Crypto Money Launderer Extradited to the US

Accused crypto money launderer Denis Mihaqlovic Dubnikov has been extradited to the United States from the Netherlands to face charges in the District of Oregon.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Dubnikov was charged by a federal grand jury in Portland for his alleged role in an international crypto money laundering conspiracy last August.

• According to the official press release, the indictment stated that the 29-year-old Russian citizen and his accomplices had full knowledge about laundering the proceeds of ransomware attacks that were carried out on individuals and companies throughout the United States and abroad.
• Dubnikov and his co-conspirators have been accused of laundering ransom payments extracted from victims of Ryuk ransomware attacks, which is a ransomware version largely attributed to the hacker group WIZARD SPIDER.
• So far, Ryuk is believed to have compromised governments, academia, healthcare, manufacturing, and tech companies.
• The DOJ said all the actors involved in the scheme, including – Ryuk, Dubnikov, his accomplices, and others – conducted several financial transactions after raking in the ransom payments.
• Some of these were international financial transactions as well and were essentially done to hide the nature, source, location, ownership, and control of the ransom proceeds.
• While Dubnikov alone is believed to have laundered over $400,000 in Ryuk ransom proceeds in July 2019, other actors involved in the conspiracy had laundered at least $70 million.
• The accused was arrested in Amsterdam last November and made his first appearance in federal court in the District of Oregon on August 17.
• If convicted, the Russian national faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, three years supervised release, in addition to a penalty of $500,000.