The U.S. Department of Justice seized $24 million in Crypto Assets from the developers of the malware Qakbot.

PANews reported on May 23 that, according to Cointelegraph, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against Russian citizen Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov who was suspected of developing Qakbot malware, demanding the confiscation of his cryptocurrency worth more than $24 million. Gallyamov, 48, is accused of operating the malware since 2008 and forming a botnet in 2019 by infecting thousands of computers. Matthew Galeotti, head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, said the operation shows that all legal means will be used to hold cybercriminals accountable. The U.S.-led international operation destroyed the Qakbot network in 2023, when 170 bitcoins and $4 million in stablecoins were seized. According to the indictment, the defendants have since switched to new methods to continue deploying ransomware such as Black Basta. It is reported that access to the Qakbot botnet has been sold to the perpetrators of a number of global ransomware attacks, including well-known ransomware groups such as Conti and REvil.