Four members of the REvil ransomware group arrested in January 2022 were released by Russian authorities on the grounds that they had already served their sentences, after pleading guilty to offenses related to carding and malware distribution.
See also: Russian court sentences four members of REvil Ransomware gang
According to their statements, Andrey Bessonov, Mikhail Golovachuk, Roman Muromsky and Dmitry Korotayev participated in the carding activities of the REvil group from October 2015 to January 2022, as reported by the Russian state news agency TASS.
All four were found guilty by the court and sentenced to five years in prison, but were released as the court took into account the time they spent in a Russian pre-trial detention center (SIZO) during the investigation and trial.
The defendants were part of a group of eight members of the criminal organization , who were arrested by Russian authorities more than three years ago.
Artem Zayets, Alexey Malozemov, Daniil Puzyrevsky , and Ruslan Khansvyarov, the remaining members of REvil arrested in January 2022, were sentenced to prison terms of over 4 years in a separate trial, as they refused to plead guilty to the charges.
See also: DragonForce ransomware abuses SimpleHelp
According to the Russian news outlet Kommersant, Zayets was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, Malozemov to 5 years, Khansvyarov to 5.5 years, and Puzyrevsky to 6 years.
The court found all four guilty of illegal circulation of payment instruments, while Puzyrevsky and Khansvyarov were also found guilty of distributing malware.
REvil ransomware, also known by the names Sodin and Sodinokibi, emerged in April 2019 as the successor to GandCrab and has evolved into the most active and profitable ransomware group, demanding high ransoms and earning over $100 million in a year.
However, in July 2021, the situation changed when REvil launched a supply chain attack through the Kaseya, affecting over 1,500 businesses worldwide. This incident led President Biden to call on President Putin to take action against Russian cybercriminals, warning that the US would take action if the Russian government did not act.
The US then arrested Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a REvil associate responsible for the Kaseya attack, in November 2021 and seized over $6 million from Russian national Yevgeniy Polyanin, also a member of the organization, who is suspected of executing the software in at least 3,000 ransomware attacks.
See also: Fog and Akira ransomware compromise corporate networks via SonicWall VPN
Based on the above, it becomes clear that the REvil case is one of the most characteristic examples of how organized cybercrime groups can cause international crises and even affect interstate relations. Such cases reinforce the discussion around the need for international cooperation and institutional frameworks to address cybercrime, as well as the development of stronger mechanisms for protection and response to cyberattacks.
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Source: bleepingcomputer
