WASHINGTON, December 5. /TASS/. The United States introduced sanctions against Russian nationals Maxim Yakubets and Igor Turashev charged by Washington with computer software fraud and certain other individuals and legal entities allegedly linked to the Evil Corp group of hackers, the US Treasury Department said on Thursday.
Further to Yakubets and Turashev, there are fifteen more individuals in the list, including citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Greece, Israel and Uzbekistan.
Sanctions are also imposed on six Russian legal entities allegedly related to Russian national Denis Gusev, who was also a member of the group of hackers, the US Treasury said. These are Biznes-Stolitsa, Optima, Treid-Invest, CAO, Vertikal and Unicom companies.
The US State Department announced a $5 mln award for information that can lead to detention of Yakubets, viewed by US authorities as the leader of the Evil Corp. The US Justice Department said that Yakubets is accused of malware sending in an attempt to steal $220 mln from banking accounts.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is participating in the joint investigation of Evil Corp operations together with US authorities, the NCA’s press service told TASS on Thursday.
"Yes, there is an investigation going on. We’ll be putting out more information soon," the press service said.
"The sophisticated, technically skilled crime group represents the most significant cybercrime threat to the UK," NCA said on its website today.