Russia frees REvil hackers after sentencing

6 days ago

Four members of the REvil ransomware group have been released from custody despite pleading guilty to fraud and malware distribution charges. The Dzerzhinsky Court of St. Petersburg allowed Roman Muromsky, Andrei Bessonov, Mikhail Golovachuk, and Dmitry Korotaev to walk free after sentencing them to five years in prison on Monday, ruling that the gang members had spent enough time in a Russian detention center while awaiting trial.
The case is unrelated to the prolific and high-profile ransomware attacks that the REvil group was noted for before it was shut down in 2021. The four REvil members were among several arrests made by Russian authorities in January 2022 after the US government warned that it would take its own action against Russian ransomware groups if the Kremlin failed to do so.
According to Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Muromsky, Bessonov, Golovachuk, and Korotaev confirmed they were involved in REvil activities between October 2015 and January 2022, and primarily targeted US citizens. This includes 'carding,' a form of fraud and laundering that involves using stolen credit card information to buy prepaid gift cards.
The court also ordered Bessonov to surrender two 2020 BMWs, and a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 and more than $1 million (in rubles and US dollars) to be seized from Korotaev. The sentencing did not include any fines.
A total of 14 REvil members were arrested in January 2022, four of whom — Daniil Puzyrevsky, Artem Zayets, Alexey Malozemov, and Ruslan Khansvyarov — were handed prison sentences of up to six and a half years in October. It is not currently believed that any of them have been, or will be, extradited to the US.

Hashtags

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

New evidence suggests Russian forces shot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243

Yahoo

2 hours ago

Yahoo

New evidence suggests Russian forces shot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243

Russian military forces were involved in the missile strike on Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 which crashed on 25 December 2024, a new audio recording and a letter published by an Azerbaijani news website on Tuesday purport to prove. Azerbaijani news outlet Minval claims it received an 'anonymous letter ... containing testimonies, audio clips, and technical details' pointing to 'technical deficiencies in the communications equipment used at the time. Minval claims the letter includes a written statement 'allegedly signed by Captain Dmitry Sergeyevich Paladichuk, a Russian air defence officer (who) was acting under direct orders from Russia's Ministry of Defence when he authorised the missile strike.' Euronews cannot independently verify the authenticity of the claims in the Azerbaijani news outlet's report. Minval's news report on Tuesday quoted the letter claiming that 'Captain Paladichuk was stationed near Grozny on duty from 24 to 25 December. At 05:40 on the day of the incident, his unit was ordered to enter full combat readiness." "Due to poor mobile reception and a lack of functional wired communication, coordination relied heavily on unstable mobile connections," the letter added. "A potential target was detected at 08:11 and tracked using radar. Two missiles were reportedly fired at the object after Paladichuk was instructed via phone to destroy it — despite heavy fog obscuring optical confirmation.' According to the letter, 'the coordinates, speeds, and directions of the target at the time of both missile launches were provided in detail in the written explanation. The first missile is said to have missed, while the second one allegedly detonated close enough for shrapnel to strike the aircraft.' Minval also claimed that it reviewed "three voice messages" believed to support the claims made in the letter. The voices reportedly confirm that operational orders were given, two missiles were fired, and shrapnel from the explosion struck the aircraft, according to the outlet. The outlet has released one audio recording purporting to depict the sequence in which a voice in Russian gives military directions, orders a missile to be fired, followed by the sound of what appears to be a firing sequence, the same voice saying 'target missed', and allegedly ordering another missile to be fired. On the day of the tragedy, Azerbaijani government sources told Euronews that a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at Flight 8243 during drone air activity above Grozny, the flight's destination. The same sources said that the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as the missile exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight, disabling it. Related Azerbaijan Airlines crash caused by foreign object damage, official report shows Russian air defence missile incident emerges as likely cause of Azerbaijan Airlines crash The damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots' requests for an emergency landing, the same sources said, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan, where it crashed while attempting an emergency landing, killing 38 and injuring 29. Subsequent reports after the tragedy claimed that Flight 8243 was downed by a missile from a Russian Pantsir-S1 system. Three days after the crash, in an address to the nation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, "we can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia (...) We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done.' At that time, on 29 December, Aliyev stated that Baku had made three demands to Russia in connection with the crash. 'First, the Russian side must apologise to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal responsibility and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and crew members,' Aliyev outlined. Aliyev noted that the first demand was 'already fulfilled' when Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to him on 28 December. Putin called the crash a 'tragic incident," though he stopped short of acknowledging Moscow's responsibility. The Kremlin said at the time that air defence systems were firing near Grozny, where the plane attempted to land, to deflect Ukrainian drone strikes. In the days following the tragedy, Russian military bloggers claimed that the said explosion happened over the Naursky District of Chechnya, where several Russian military units were posted at the time, including those with air defence systems, basing their conclusions on open-source data. The new claims linking the Russian military to the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 tragedy appear at a time of a fast-moving escalation of judicial measures between Russia and Azerbaijan, as relations between the two countries reach a new low.