Whopping $3 Million Bounty offered by FBI for Evgeniy Bogachev.
The FBI and the U.S. State Department announced the highest ever bounty of $3 million on Tuesday for info leading to the capture or conviction of alleged Russian Hacker Evgeniy Bogachev.
This amount is the highest offered by U.S authorities in any cyber case.
A “most wanted” poster has also been issued by the FBI.
Bogachev has been charged in the US with the crime of running a computer hacking network known as GameOver Zeus.
This network allegedly stole about $100million+ from online bank accounts.
Related Post: Hackers Target Monster Jobs Website with Gameover Zeus malware
Details:
Federal authorities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has charged Evgeniy Bogachev with a number of offences including conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hackings, bank fraud and of course money laundering.
He is the primary suspect because of his role as GameOver Zeus’s administrator.
Bogachev will also be facing charges of conspiring for federal bank fraud in Omaha, Nebraska due to his alleged involvement in a previous variant of Zeus malware called “Jabber Zeus.”
The United States Department of Justice announced in June 2014, that authorities had shut down those servers that helped these cyber criminals in controlling infected devices.
FBI’s official Statement:
According to FBI officials, Bogachev is hiding in Russia. Joseph Demarest, FBI’s Cybercrime division head, states that
“This was a worldwide infection, but it also had law enforcement worldwide working to combat it and bring to justice the criminal organization behind it.”
INL offers up-to-$3million for info on Evgeniy Bogachev, member of @FBI Cyber Most Wanted list http://t.co/ei9NAXudX5 pic.twitter.com/rlRbZG0NYK
— US Dept of State INL (@StateINL) February 24, 2015
FBI has knowledge about 60 of such threat groups that have links to nation-states, says Demarest. However, he refrains from identifying which countries were supposedly backing these groups.
