A 34-year-old Russian-Canadian national has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail in Canada for his participation in the LockBit global ransomware operation.
Mikhail Vasiliev, an Ontario resident, was originally arrested in November 2022 and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) with “conspiring with others to intentionally damage protected computers and to transmit ransom demands in connection with doing so.”
News of Vasiliev’s jail term was first reported by CTV News.
He is believed to have become a cyber criminal while at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, attempting to seek ransom payments from three Canadian companies between 2021 and 2022 by stealing their data and holding it hostage.
Vasiliev, who has consented to being extradited to the U.S., has also been ordered to pay back more than $860,000 in restitution.
Although the group reemerged with a new data leak site, there is evidence to suggest that the new victims being listed are either old or fake, designed to give an impression that the group is back up and running.
“Bitcoin Fog was the longest-running cryptocurrency ‘mixer,’ gaining notoriety as a go-to money laundering service for criminals seeking to hide their illicit proceeds from law enforcement,” the DoJ said.
“Over the course of its decade-long operation, Bitcoin Fog moved over 1.2 million bitcoin, which was valued at approximately $400 million at the time of the transactions.”
Source: https://thehackernews.com/
