Ukrainian Hacker "Rabotnik" Sentenced in Major Ransomware Crackdown

The Department of Justice said Wednesday that Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian national who used the online nickname "Rabotnik," had been sentenced to 13 years and seven months in prison after his plea last year to conspiring to conduct more than 2,500 ransomware attacks and collect tens of millions of dollars in ransom, totaling over $700 million.

The sentencing is part of a larger crackdown on ransomware groups promised by President Joe Biden in November 2021. That promise followed REvil's demand of $70 million in bitcoin (BTC) from a hack of Miami-based software provider Kaseya.

Russian authorities smashed REvil in March 2022 after U.S. requests. "

This sentencing is a clear example: the Department of Justice is partnering with our international allies to go after cybercriminals wherever they may be, and we will use every tool at our disposal to identify them, to capture their illicit profits, and to hold them accountable for their crimes," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

Rabotnik, 24, has also been ordered to pay over $16 million in restitution for his role as an affiliate of the groups who use the ransomware variant known as Sodinokibi or REvil to demand payments in cryptocurrency and using mixing services to "hide their ill-gotten gains."

Rabotnik, who had already been extradited to the U.S. from Poland once, had pleaded guilty in federal court to an 11-count indictment accusing him of "conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering."

In 2023, the DOJ made public that it had seized close to 40 bitcoins, whose current value was almost $2.3 million, and proceeds of $6.1 million that could be traced to the ransom paid by other conspirators.