The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint about civil forfeiture to seize more than $ 24 million in Cryptocurrency from Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, a Russian national accused of developing Qakbot malware.
According to a May 22, DOJ was unknown charges against the 48-year-old Moscovit with a federal indictment. Gallyamov is allegedly the malware developer behind the Qakbot Botnet.
“Today’s notice of the Ministry of Justice’s latest actions to address the Qakbot -Malware scheme sends a clear message to the cybercrime community,” said Matthew Galeotti, head of DOJ’s criminal department.
Galeotti emphasized that DOJ is “determined to keep cyber criminals in charge.” He added that the department will “use any legal tool” to “identify you, charge you, lose your poorly achieved gains and upset your criminal activity.”
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Over $ 24 million lost
US lawyer Bill Essayli for the Central District of California explained that “the criminal charges and forfeit cases announced today are part of an ongoing effort” to “identify, disrupt and hold responsible cyber criminals.” He added:
“The forfeiture of action against more than $ 24 million in virtual assets also demonstrates the Ministry of Justice’s obligation to seize poorly obtained assets from criminals to eventually compensate victims.”
Assistant Director responsible for Akil Davis of the FBIS Los Angeles Field Office said Qakbot was paralyzed by the Agency and its partners in 2023. Still, Gallyamov was still continuing to implement alternative methods to offer its malware to potential partners.
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Qakbot used in global ransomware -attack
Gallyamov allegedly served Qakbot malware as far back as in 2008. In 2019, he allegedly used it to infect thousands of sacrificial computers to establish a so-called botnet.
Access to computers that were part of the botnet were sold to others who infected them with ransomware, including prolock, bilepaymer, egregor, revil, conti, name locker, black bast and cactus. By 2023, a US-led International Operation Disturbed Qakbot Botnet and Malware.
At that time, over 170 Bitcoin (BTC) and over $ 4 million in USDT (USDT) and USDC (USDC) stableecoins were seized from Gallyamov. According to the indictment, he and his partners continued the activity after it was disturbed, adopted new techniques, including direct implementation of Black Basta and Cactus Ransomware.
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