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CybercriminalityUkrainian bigwig arrested in Geneva
The man is said to be the leader of a criminal group known as the Jabberzeus Crew. He would have been arrested when he came to Switzerland to visit his wife.
Wanted by the FBI, the leader of a Ukrainian hacker gang was arrested in Geneva on October 23. His extradition to the United States was authorized on Tuesday, the Federal Office of Justice told the site watson.chstating that the man is suspected by the American authorities of extortion, bank fraud and identity theft.
However, the Ukrainian can still challenge his extradition before the Federal Criminal Court. The criminal group he leads, known as the Jabberzeus Crew, allegedly stole at least $70 million from American and European companies by hacking into their banking access and then paying salaries to fictitious employees. While two other members of this organization were arrested in 2014 and extradited to the United States, another is still actively sought by the FBI, which is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to their arrest. .
It was his family that brought him down
According to the website krebsonsecurity.com, which first revealed the recent arrest, the gang leader was arrested when he came to Geneva to visit his wife. And it was already by an element related to his family that he could have been identified, says this site. In July 2009, in a chat with members of his gang, he made the mistake of giving the name and weight of his newborn daughter. The study of Ukrainian maternity registers had shown that these data corresponded to only one child born on the day in question.
The godfather of this girl would be none other than the son of the former Ukrainian president, Victor Yanukovych Jr. For many years, the links between this criminal and the high Ukrainian political spheres enabled him not to be worried in his country.