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Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov, 37, has received two concurrent sentences for his role in Zeus and IcedID campaigns that stole millions of dollars.
A 37-year-old Ukrainian man has been sentenced to two concurrent nine-year jail terms after pleading guilty earlier in the year to being behind two malware campaigns that resulted in losses running into the tens of millions of dollars.
Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov’s jail term will be followed by a three-year period of supervision.
US District Judge John M. Gerrard has also directed the hacker to pay US$73 million by way of restitution.
Penchukov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organisations (RICO) act offence for his role as a leader in the Zeus malware campaign, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, this time over his leadership role in the IcedID malware organisation.
Penchukov – also known as “tank” and “father” online – was originally charged in 2012 by a federal grand jury in the US District of Nebraska in August 2012 alongside Ivan Viktorvich Klepikov (aka “petr0vich”) and Alexey Dmitrievich Bron (aka “thehead”). Klepikov and Bron were arrested in 2015 and sentenced a year later.
The Zeus campaign began in 2009 and successfully harvested banking details from its victims before emptying their accounts by pretending to be employees with the authorisation to make massive transfers into other accounts. Several money mules were also a part of the operation.
Later, after being added to the FBI’s Cyber Most Wanted List, Penchukov helped run a malware campaign spreading IcedID, also known as Bokbot. This also harvested banking credentials, among other personal information, and was also capable of spreading ransomware on victim’s networks. The University of Vermont Medical Center lost more than US$30 million to Penchukov and his cronies. The IcedID campaign ran from 2018 to 2021.
“Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov was a leader of two prolific malware groups that infected thousands of computers with malicious software. These criminal groups stole millions of dollars from their victims and even attacked a major hospital with ransomware, leaving it unable to provide critical care to patients for over two weeks,” acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in a 15 February statement.
“Before his arrest and extradition to the United States, the defendant was a fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list for nearly a decade. Today’s guilty pleas should serve as a clear warning: the Justice Department will never stop in its pursuit of cybercriminals.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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