Russia Grants Freedom to REvil Hackers Following Sentencing

Four members of the notorious REvil ransomware group have been set free by the Dzerzhinsky Court in St. Petersburg, despite admitting to charges of fraud and distributing malware. Roman Muromsky, Andrei Bessonov, Mikhail Golovachuk, and Dmitry Korotaev were sentenced to five years in prison but were released on Monday, as the court deemed their time spent in Russian detention sufficient while awaiting trial.

According to reports from the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, the four individuals confessed to being part of the REvil group from October 2015 to January 2022, with a primary focus on targeting US citizens. Their criminal activities included “carding,” a fraudulent scheme involving the use of stolen credit card details to purchase prepaid gift cards.

The court also ruled for Bessonov to forfeit two 2020 BMWs and a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200, while ordering the seizure of over $1 million in rubles and US dollars from Korotaev. Notably, the sentencing did not include any monetary fines.

In January 2022, a total of 14 REvil members were apprehended, with four of them receiving prison terms of up to six and a half years in October. It is currently uncertain whether any of the convicted individuals will be extradited to the United States.