Ukrainian Hacker Finally Arrested For Stealing Millions After 10 Years Hunt

A Ukrainian hacker, Vyacheslav Igorevich, has been arrested in Switzerland after being accused of stealing millions of dollars. It was reported that the United States authorities have been hunting him for over 10 years.

Hacker Refuses Extradition

On October 23rd, Igorevich was arrested in the Swiss canton while visiting his wife. Swiss authorities confirmed the news to the media about a Ukrainian hacker refusing extradition. Raphael Frei, a Swiss Federal Office of Justice spokesman, revealed that Igorevich’s extradition has been authorized.

According to the reports, Igorevich began his extradition to the United States on November 15th, 2022. The Ukrainian hacker was accused of leading a black-hat hacking group that stole millions of dollars.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been hunting Igorevich and his accomplices for over a decade. Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov, also known as DJ Rich, and two other members have been identified as accomplices in the cybercrime. Igorevich and his gang were accused of breaking into online bank accounts and stealing money.

The report reveals that the hackers used the Zeus malware to gain bank account numbers and passwords to gain access. An anonymous individual used the handle, lucky12345, to infect machines with the Zeus malware. The Zeus malware can be folded into a botnet and leveraged to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

KrebsOnSecurity explained that the gang targeted mainly small and medium businesses. It was also explained that the gang employed money launderers to aid the process of transferring the stolen money.

Who is DJ Slava Rich?

Igorevich aka DJ Slava Rich is from Donestk in Ukraine which is currently in warfare with Russia. It was reported that Igorevich was known in his region for owning expensive cars such as BMWs and Porsches. A report from 2017 said that Igorevich is a recognized DJ in his local region.

Igorevich had other pseudonyms such as “tank” and “father”. In 2012, he was charged with cybercrime in the District of Nebraska along with, Alexey Dmitrievich Bron (aka The head), and Ivan Viktorovich Kleipikov (aka Petrovich and Nowhere).