The US Justice Department seeks an extradition of the Russian businessman Denis Dubnikov. Earlier the Netherlands government detained him at the airport in Amsterdam at the request of the FBI. The Justice Department accuses Russian of ransomware money laundering, an activity Dubnikov denies to be guilty of. According to Dubnikov`s lawyer Arkady Bukh his client will try to stop the extradition process.
Denis Dubnikov in the process of extradition to US
Denis Dubnikov, 29, the co-founder of crypto trading platforms Coyote Crypto and Eggchange faces up to 20 years prison. That is in case if he be extradited to the United States. Local police first held a businessman at the airport in Mexico City. After that they forcibly boarded him on a flight to the Netherlands. Immediately there Dutch authorities detained him. For that reason Dubnikov`s lawyer explained the situation in his own words. Local police expelled Dubnikov from Mexico because the country’s extradition policy presents itself not as “ideal” as that of Holland. In his interview to Sputnik he calls the whole situation practically the kidnapping of his client.
“Mexico has not let him enter the country. The US intelligence services have put him on a plane to the Netherlands and sent him there having paid for his ticket. In other words, he was kidnapped in fact.” says Dubnikov’s lawyer Arkady Bukh.
Ryuk ransomware attacks
In the same interview the legal representative detailed. He added that so far they do not agree on extradition but they probably will later give their consent. The reason lies in the fact that the Netherlands shows itself as a country where fighting against extradition statistically does not have any meaning. They are studying. The possible solution finds itself in them eventually agree to quick extradition and sort out things there. A Justice Department spokesperson did not provide any comments.
Many media outlets report that the case connects itself with last year’s wake of Ryuk ransomware attacks. That time hackers primarily attacked US health care organizations. One of the most prominent cases was the attack on the University of Vermont Health Network. The health care provider management was forced to delay mammogram and chemotherapy appointments. In October 2020 the FBI and other federal agencies even issued warnings. They warned about upcoming attack threats from Ryuk to US hospitals and health care providers.
Fight against ransomware
The situation with ever growing number of ransomware onslaughts became so palpable that current president Joe Biden repeatedly called the Russian president Vladimir Putin to take actions against ransomware groups that operate from Russian Federation territories and its satellites.
As a result in the process of two countries` negotiations over the subject recently the US Justice Department put on the wanted list Russian national Yevgeniy Polyanin. According to his indictment he conducted Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware attacks against multiple victims that included businesses and government entities in Texas on or about Aug. 16, 2019. Contributor to Russian Forbes Pavel Vrublevsky undoubtedly links the fact of Dubnikov`s arrest to Polyanin that must have used Denis Dubnikov`s EGGCash-Coyotes.
