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Ontario man arrested, awaiting U.S. extradition for alleged global ransomware crimes

The United States Department of Justice says a Russian-Canadian man from Ontario is in police custody and awaiting extradition to the U.S. for his alleged participation in a global ransomware campaign.

The department says 33-year-old Mikhail Vasiliev from Bradford, Ont., is charged with conspiracy to intentionally damage protected computers and to transmit ransom demands in connection with his alleged role in the LockBit global ransomware scheme.

The department describes LockBit in court documents as a ransomware variant that first appeared around January 2020 and has since become one of the most active and destructive campaigns in the world, having been deployed against at least 1,000 victims in the U.S. and beyond. 

It alleges LockBit has made at least $100 million in ransom demands and extracted tens of millions of dollars in actual ransom payments from victims.

It says the Federal Bureau of Investigation began looking into LockBit around March 2020.

Vasiliev faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the arrest is the result of a more than two-and-a-half year investigation into LockBit and more than a decade of experience between FBI agents, Justice Department prosecutors and international partners in dismantling cyber threats.

"Let this be yet another warning to ransomware actors: working with partners around the world, the Department of Justice will continue to disrupt cyber threats and hold perpetrators to account," Monaco said in a news release issued on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press


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