Alleged Russian Crypto Money Launderer Extradited to the US

Crypto money laundering defendant Denis Mihaqlovic Dubnikov was extradited to the United States from the Netherlands to face charges in the Oregon district.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said Dubnikov was indicted 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 alleged that the 29-year-old Russian citizen and his accomplices were aware of the laundering of the proceeds of ransomware attacks carried out against individuals and companies in the United States and abroad.
• Dubnikov and his co-conspirators have been accused of laundering ransom money extracted from victims of the 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 technology companies.
• The Justice Department said all actors involved in the scheme, including Ryuk, Dubnikov, his accomplices and others, conducted several financial transactions after collecting ransom payments.
• Some of these were also international financial transactions and were essentially done to conceal the nature, source, location, ownership and control of the redemption proceeds.
• While Dubnikov alone is believed to have laundered over $ 400,000 in Ryuk’s ransom proceeds in July 2019, other actors involved in the conspiracy had laundered at least $ 70 million.
• The defendant was arrested in Amsterdam last November and made his first appearance before federal court in the Oregon borough on August 17.
• If convicted, the Russian citizen faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, three years of probation, plus a $ 500,000 fine.