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Russian court sentences four REvil members to several years in jail


The St. Petersburg Garrison Military Court has sentenced four alleged members of the ransomware gang REvil up to six years in prison for hacking and money laundering.

REvil, also known as Sodin and Sodinokibi, is a hacking group that was launched in 2019 and carried out cyberattacks from Russia.

Members infiltrated victims’ computer systems and infected them with ransomware so employees could no longer open corporate files. The only way to remove the digital lock was to pay ransom and obtain the decryption key.

In less than a year, the gang became the most prolific ransomware operation in the world, with an estimated revenue of over $ 100 million. The group gained notoriety by carrying out cyberattacks on high-profile targets like currency exchange office Travelex, Brazilian meat packing company JBS and American IT service provider Kaseya.

In the Summer of 2021, REvil suddenly disappeared. The group probably felt the heat from international law enforcement agencies and decided to lay low for a while. When the operation reappeared a few months later, the FBI took down their entire digital infrastructure.

During that time, numerous arrests were made in Germany, the United States and Russia and over $ 6.6 million in cash and luxurious goods were seized.

Out of the fourteen arrests, eight suspects were convicted for their involvement in the REvil ransomware gang. Four others were sentenced separately. They got to hear their sentence last Friday.

According to Russian news outlet Kommersant, Artem Zayets, Alexey Malozemov, Daniil Puzyrevsky and Ruslan Khansvyarov were sentenced to prison for, respectively, four-and-a-half years, five years, five-and-a-half years and six years.

The St. Petersburg Garrison Military Court found them all guilty of hacking and money laundering. Puzyrevsky was seen as the group’s leader and could potentially face a fine in addition to his prison sentence.

All suspects have been in custody since January 2022, just before the Russian invasion in Ukraine began. They all claimed to be innocent. Russia’s military court thought otherwise and convicted them to multiple years in prison.


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