US imposes sanctions on ‘most harmful cyber crime group’ with some members tied to Ukraine

The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on 17 cybercriminals, the department’s website said. They were all caught in ties with the Russian hacking group Evil Corp. Some of the suspects have ties to Ukraine, as noted by Liga.net outlet.

Case highlights

• Activities of Evil Corp. since 2014 have been investigated by law enforcement agencies in the United States and Great Britain. In a joint statement, it was called “world’s most harmful cybercrime group,” Meduza retells.
• The group had been operating for more than 10 years. It was managed from Russia and appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars through the systematic theft of banking data. Accurate assessment of damage is not available.
• For help in apprehending the leader of Evil Corp., a Russian citizen of Ukrainian origin Maksim Yakubets, a reward of $ 5 million was announced – this is a record high for cybercrimes. Yakubets himself drives his Lamborghini in Moscow bearing license plate “Thief” in English.
• Also, sanctions were imposed against Yakubets, his accomplice Igor Turashev, and 21 accomplices and companies.

Ukrainian connection

Five members of the group have ties to Ukraine, although all without exception worked from Russia.

• David Guberman, an Israeli citizen, was born in Ukraine.
• Tatiana Shevchuk, a citizen of Ukraine.
• Artem Yakubets, a citizen of Russia, was born in Ukraine.
• Maksim Yakubets, kingpin of the group, citizen of Russia, was born in Ukraine.
• Ruslan Zamulko, a citizen of Ukraine.

All of them are on a special blacklist of persons (SDN, Specially Designated Nationals List), which is published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury. Each participant can challenge his or her entry into the sanctions list, until such time Americans are prohibited from doing business with such individuals.