Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinksyi, also known as Rabotnik, has been sentenced to 13 years and seven months in prison. He is ordered to pay over $16 million in fines for his role in the REvil ransomware group. According to the US Department of Justice, the 24-year-old played a part in more than 2,500 ransomware attacks, extorting over $700 million in ransom payments.
Vasinksyi was arrested in 2022 on the Polish-Ukrainian border and then extradited to the US. Before this sentencing, he had pleaded guilty to an 11-count indictment in a Texas court, which included charges including conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Justice Department revealed it obtained the final forfeiture of millions of dollars in ransom payments in 2023. This included 39.89138522 Bitcoin and $6.1 million, traceable to other alleged ransom payments received by Vasinksyi and Yevgeniy Polyanin, a Russian national and member of the REvil group.
Emerging in 2019, REvil quickly made a name for itself as one of the most notorious cybercrime groups in history. They frequently carried out high-profile ransomware attacks, including one on IT management software company Kaseya in July 2021. The attack reportedly left nearly 200 businesses encrypted, although Kaseya reported only 40 businesses affected globally. REvil also asked for over $70 million in ransom from Kaseya, making it one of the highest ransom demands in cyberattack history.
Following the attack, the FBI announced that it would investigate the matter with the CISA and other interagency partners. Shortly after, REvil mysteriously disappeared from the Internet and the dark web, with all of its websites going down simultaneously, indicating a total shutdown.
Later, in October 2021, two suspects from the REvil were arrested in a coordinated strike between the FBI, the Ukrainian police force, and the French National Gendarmerie in Kyiv, Ukraine. The arrest resulted in seven property searches, US$375,000 being seized in cash, two luxury vehicles worth €217,000, and assets worth $1.3 million in cryptocurrencies being sealed.Â
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