The U.S. Justice Department has sequestered more than $2.8 million worth of cryptocurrency from Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko, who is suspected of running the Zeppelin ransomware operation that has targeted organizations and individuals in the U.S. and other parts of the world between 2019 and its disruption in 2022, reports BleepingComputer.
Attacks by Antropenko and his co-conspirators involved data encryption, exfiltration, and extortion, with the obtained ransom payments laundered via the now-defunct ChipMixer coin tumbling service, structured deposits, and crypto-to-cash exchanges, according to the Justice Department, which also noted the seizure of $70,000 in cash and a luxury vehicle as part of the operation. Such asset confiscation comes more than a year after the reported sale of Zeppelin ransomware's source code for $500, as well as follows the recent nabbing of $2.4 million and $1 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Chaos and BlackSuit ransomware gangs, respectively.
Attacks by Antropenko and his co-conspirators involved data encryption, exfiltration, and extortion, with the obtained ransom payments laundered via the now-defunct ChipMixer coin tumbling service, structured deposits, and crypto-to-cash exchanges, according to the Justice Department, which also noted the seizure of $70,000 in cash and a luxury vehicle as part of the operation. Such asset confiscation comes more than a year after the reported sale of Zeppelin ransomware's source code for $500, as well as follows the recent nabbing of $2.4 million and $1 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Chaos and BlackSuit ransomware gangs, respectively.
