Vladimir Dunaev faces charges for cybercrimes

According to Reuters on October 28th Russian national Vladimir Dunaev faced charges for several cybercrimes. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that the U.S government extradited the defendant from South Korea to Ohio. U.S. federal court on Thursday charged him with his alleged role in a cybercriminal organization.

Vladimir Dunaev faces charges in US court

As the indictment goes, from the start of November 2015 and all through August 2020 Dunaev and others unnamed damaged computer systems, stole money and confidential information. Their victims include private businesses, individuals, school districts, financial institutions, utility companies, government entities. Vladimir Dunaev, 38, and other defendants deployed a ransomware suite of malware known as “Trickbot” and also a computer banking trojan.

“Trickbot attacked businesses and victims across the globe and infected millions of computers for theft and ransom, including networks of schools, banks, municipal governments, and companies in the health care, energy, and agriculture sectors,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco added in a statement.

Dunaev himself stood in charge of a variety of developer functions in support of the Trickbot malware. It included developing browser modifications, helping to put off tracing the malware from detection by security software and managing the malware’s execution.

Court charged Dunaev with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, multiple counts of wire fraud. And also aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit computer fraud. A representative of Dunaev could not be immediately contacted.

Russian national will receive 60 years in prison

He will receive 60 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Dunaev entered a not guilty plea in his first court appearance on Thursday. He waived detention, according to Daniel Ball, a spokesman for the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.In a press release issued by the South Korean Ministry of Justice it said Korean police extradited a Russian national accused of being involved in the Trickbot malware to the United States on October 20th. The ministry added the Russian national arrest took place in June at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport.

Another suspect involved in the case, a Latvian national Alla Witte. Her arrest took place in Miami in February and she also faces charges in the Northern District of Ohio. Prosecutors accuse her of writing computer “code related to the control, deployment, and payments of ransomware.” Witte pleaded not guilty in June according to Ball, the Northern District of Ohio spokesman. Before the extradition of Dunaev in September the European law enforcement and the FBI arrested two people in Ukraine. They allegedly made multimillion dollar ransom demands in the wake of US organization hacks.