A federal grand jury in Bridgeport, Connecticut, returned an
eight-count indictment yesterday charging a Russian National with multiple
offenses stemming from his alleged operation of the Kelihos botnet – a global
network of tens of thousands of infected computers, which he allegedly used to
facilitate malicious activities including harvesting login credentials,
distributing bulk spam e-mails, and installing ransomware and other malicious
software.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the
Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly of the
District of Connecticut and Special Agent in Charge Patricia M. Ferrick of the
FBI’s New Haven Division made the announcement.
Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 36, aka Petr Levashov, Peter
Severa, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, of St. Petersburg, Russia, was charged
in an indictment returned in the District of Connecticut with one count of
causing intentional damage to a protected computer, one count of conspiracy,
one count of accessing protected computers in furtherance of fraud, one count
of wire fraud, one count of threatening to damage a protected computer, two
counts of fraud in connection with email and one count of aggravated identity
theft. The case has been assigned to Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford.
Spanish authorities arrested Levashov in Barcelona on April
7, 2017. The arrest was based upon a criminal complaint and arrest warrant
issued in the District of Connecticut on March 24, 2017. Levashov has been
detained since his arrest, and the Justice Department is seeking his
extradition.
As alleged in the indictment, a “botnet” is a network of
computers infected with a malicious software that allows a third party to
control the entire computer network without the knowledge or consent of the
computer owners. Levashov allegedly controlled and operated the Kelihos botnet
to, among other things, harvest personal information and means of
identification (including email addresses, usernames and logins, and passwords)
from infected computers. To further the scheme, Levashov allegedly disseminated
spam and distributed other malware – such as banking Trojans and ransomware,
and advertised the Kelihos botnet spam and malware services to others for
purchase in order to enrich himself.
The indictment further alleges that during any 24-hour
period, the Kelihos botnet was used to generate and distribute more than 2,500
unsolicited spam e-mails that advertised various criminal schemes, including
deceptively promoting stocks in order to fraudulently increase their price
(so-called “pump-and-dump” stock fraud schemes).
On April 10, 2017, the Justice Department announced that it
had taken action to dismantle the Kelihos botnet.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and a defendant is
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a
court of law.
The FBI’s New Haven Division and Anchorage Division are
investigating the case, with the assistance of the Spanish National Police.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vanessa Richards and David Huang of the District of
Connecticut, with the assistance of Senior Trial Attorneys Anthony
Teelucksingh, Ethan Arenson and Harold Chun of the Criminal Division’s Computer
Crime and Intellectual Property Section are prosecuting the case. The Criminal
Division’s Office of International Affairs is handling the extradition in this
matter.
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