U.S. authorities have identified and charged the mastermind behind LockBit, a massive ransomware operation that extorted $500 million from victims. He faces more than 20 criminal charges.
According to the 26-count indictment unsealed Tuesday, Dmitry Khoroshev, 31, served as a “developer and administrator” who led LockBit’s code development and recruited affiliates to distribute ransomware to victims. The alleged cybercriminals received 20 percent of each ransom for their role in the scheme, which netted them $100 million in cryptocurrency over about four years, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Tuesday.
“Today’s indictment highlights the FBI’s continued disruption of the BlockBit criminal ecosystem,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
According to prosecutors, LockBit has extorted at least $500 million from approximately 2,500 victims in more than 120 countries since its founding in 2019. But the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that it was responsible for “extensive losses” worth billions of dollars related to lost revenue, incident response and ransom recovery.
In the indictment, U.S. authorities demanded that Koroshev forfeit $100 million in ill-gotten gains. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia imposed sanctions on the mastermind of the case, freezing his assets and banning his travel.
The U.S. State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Koroshev’s arrest.
The indictment comes months after authorities took steps to halt ransomware activity. Last February, international law enforcement seized LockBit’s infrastructure, effectively disrupting its operations. Around that time, U.S. authorities charged two Russian cybercriminals with distributing Lockbit ransomware to numerous companies and groups.
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