The Department of Justice announced charges on Tuesday against a Ukrainian national who the government alleges is responsible for hundreds of ransomware attacks that targeted both U.S. and international companies.
Volodymyr Tymoshchuk, also known as “deadforz,” “Boba,” “msfv,” and “farnetwork,” has been charged by the DOJ for his role in schemes that extorted more than 250 companies across the United States and hundreds more around the world. Tymoshchuk remains a fugitive and is not in U.S. custody.
“Tymoshchuk is a serial ransomware criminal who targeted blue-chip American companies, health care institutions, and large foreign industrial firms, and threatened to leak their sensitive data online if they refused to pay,” United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in an official statement.
“For a time, the defendant stayed ahead of law enforcement by deploying new strains of malicious software when his old ones were decrypted. Today’s charges reflect international coordination to unmask and charge a dangerous and pervasive ransomware actor who can no longer remain anonymous.”
The criminal indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) alleges that between December 2018 and October 2021, Tymoshchuk and his co-conspirators used the Nefilim, LockerGoga, and MegaCortex ransomware variants to infiltrate and encrypt the networks of hundreds of companies in the United States and abroad. Prosecutors say the attacks inflicted heavy costs on U.S. victims, both through ransom payments and recovery efforts.
Also on Tuesday, the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) announced a reward of up to $10 million under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Tymoshchuk in any country.
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