The District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Oct. 1 unsealed an indictment against Russian citizen Aleksandr Ryzhenkov, the "second-in-command" of the Russian cybercriminal group Evil Corp., for using the BitPaymer ransomware variant against various U.S. individuals to "hold their sensitive data for ransom," DOJ announced.
A Russian citizen living in North Georgia, Feliks Medvedev, was sentenced on Oct. 2 to three years and 10 months in prison for conducting an "unlicensed money transmitting business," which saw the transfer of over $150 million in Russian money. Medvedev was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and told to pay a $10,000 fine, DOJ said.
A former vice president of international cargo airline Polar Air Cargo Worldwide was sentenced to 32 months in prison on Oct. 1 for his role in scheme to defraud the airline out of more than $32 million in revenue, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Ahead of sentencing, the former executive, Abilash Kurien, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Australia extradited Chinese national Jin Guanghua to the U.S. last week to face charges that he, along with co-conspirators, took part in a scheme to sell tobacco in North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced. Jin made his initial appearance in a District of Columbia district court Sept. 30.
Shipping companies Prive Overseas Marine and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret were sentenced last week to pay a $2 million criminal penalty after pleading guilty to dumping oil-contaminated waste into the ocean, DOJ announced. The companies operated the P/S Dream, the vessel from which the waste was released, and will both also undergo a four-year probationary period.
A former Connecticut oil trader was convicted Sept. 26 of paying more than $1 million in bribes to Brazilian officials to secure lucrative contracts for two U.S. energy corporations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Russian national Sergey Ivanov and virtual currency exchange Cryptex, which is operated by Ivanov. The move was announced concurrently with enforcement action from various U.S. and international enforcement agencies, including an indictment unsealed against Ivanov and fellow Russian national Timur Shakhmametov.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi pleaded guilty last week to participating in a scheme to convince a U.S. person to move hundreds of thousands of dollars, in violations of U.S. sanctions, DOJ said. Bazzi, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 for helping to finance the terror group Hezbollah, agreed to forfeit the nearly $830,000 involved in the transaction and to be removed from the U.S. after his sentence. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The U.S. recently unsealed a pair of indictments, one against Russian national Denis Postovoy and the other against Chinese national Song Wu, for national security-related offenses. Postovoy is accused of conspiring to commit export control violations by shipping microelectronic components with military applications from the U.S. to Russia, while Song is charged with fraud and identity theft related to efforts to obtain confidential or proprietary software from government agencies, research universities and private companies.
Gal Haimovich, an Israeli national, pleaded guilty Sept. 9 to conspiracy to commit export control and smuggling violations for his part in a scheme to ship aircraft parts and avionics equipment from the U.S. to Russia, DOJ announced. Haimovich admitted to "deceiving U.S. companies about the true destination of the goods at issue" and attempting to hide the scheme by submitting false information in export documents submitted to the U.S. government.