Last week the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization.
This Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise was reportedly created by Svyatoslav Bondarenko, a Ukrainian citizen also knwn as “Obnon,” “Rector,” and “Helkern.” Another Ukrainian, Alexey Klimenko, has also been indicted, as well as people from a variety of other countries.
According to Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan, “the indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice.”
The Infraud Organization was created in October 2010 under the slogan “In Fraud We Trust.”
According to the US authorities, “traffic and potential purchasers were directed to the automated vending sites of the organization’s members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods.”
The organization “also provided an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital currency transactions among its members and employed screening protocols that purported to ensure only high quality vendors of stolen cards, personally identifiable information, and other contraband were permitted to advertise to members.”
Such activities generated approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses, and more than $530 million in actual losses inflicted to a wide range of financial institutions, merchants and private individuals.
This past spring Ukrainian hacker Vadym Iermolovych, 29, was sentenced to 30 months in prison by a US court under charges of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and aggravated identity theft” in 2016.
Source: United States Department of Justice
