According to BlockBeats, on May 23, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit seeking to seize over $24 million in cryptocurrency held by Russian citizen Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov. Gallyamov is accused of developing the Qakbot malware.
The indictment shows that Gallyamov has been operating the Qakbot malware since 2008, infecting thousands of computers in 2019 to build a botnet and selling access to ransomware gangs. These gangs carried out attacks using ransomware such as Prolock, Dopplepaymer, and REvil.
During an international operation in 2023, U.S. authorities seized 170 bitcoins and over $4 million in stablecoins held by Gallyamov. Gallyamov and his accomplices then adopted new technologies to deploy Black Basta and Cactus ransomware to continue their criminal activities.
