A Ukrainian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. for his role in two malware operations, Zeus and IcedID, that infected thousands of computers and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses between May 2009 and February 2021.
Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov (aka Vyacheslav Igoravich Andreev, father, and tank), 37, was arrested by Swiss authorities in October 2022 and extradited to the U.S. in 2023. He was added to the FBI’s most-wanted list in 2012.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) described Penchukov as a “leader of two prolific malware groups” that infected thousands of computers with malware, leading to ransomware and the theft of millions of dollars.
This included the Zeus banking trojan that facilitated the theft of bank account information, passwords, personal identification numbers, and other details necessary to login to online banking accounts.
Penchukov and his co-conspirators, were accused of being a member of a cybercrime gang known as JabberZeus crew in 2012. It was a small cybercriminal ring that was targeting SMBs with a custom-made version of the Zeus banking Trojan.
They also used individuals residing in the U.S. and other parts of the world as “money mules” to receive the wired funds, which were ultimately funneled to overseas accounts controlled by Penchukov. A successor to Zeus was dismantled in 2014.
The defendant has also been accused of facilitating malicious activity by helping lead attacks involving the IcedID (aka BokBot) malware from at least November 2018. The malware is capable of acting as an information stealer and a loader for other payloads, such as ransomware.
Penchukov was able to evade prosecution by Ukrainian authorities for many years due to his political connections.
Following his arrest and extradition, Penchukov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) act offense for his leadership role in the Jabber Zeus group. He also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his leadership role in the IcedID malware group.
Penchukov is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9, 2024, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count.
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