10 Million Dollar Bounty: The Hunt for Ransomware Kingpin Mikhail Matveev

In a decree promulgated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department, it was announced that a bounty has been placed on Russian ransomware developer Mikhail Matveev under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. The maximum reward for Matveev has been set at 10 million U.S. dollars.

According to an inquiry conducted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Treasury Department, Mikhail Matveev has been implicated in the creation and deployment of several strains of ransomware, such as Hive, LockBit, and Babuk.

These pernicious software have been employed in attacks against U.S. government websites, private American businesses, financial and educational institutions, as well as other global governmental bodies and enterprises. Hive alone has wreaked significant havoc upon over 1500 victims across 80 different countries or regions, impacting hospitals, schools, financial firms, and other infrastructural facilities.

A reward of 10 million dollars has been offered by the U.S. Treasury Department for the capture of the Russian ransomware cybercriminal, Mikhail Matveev.

In the year 2021, Babuk launched an assault against a police department in a major U.S. city, expropriating a substantial amount of confidential information as well as investigative evidence relating to other criminal gangs and sensitive details pertaining to witnesses.

Mikhail Matveev is one of the pivotal figures in these ransomware activities, his primary role being the development of these ransomware and their variants, though occasionally he also partakes in the deployment of these software, implying the attack on specific targets.

In response to this, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department has proclaimed sanctions against Mikhail Matveev, freezing his assets within the United States, forbidding any transactions with him by Americans or American businesses, and placing a maximum bounty of 10 million dollars on him.

Anyone providing information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mikhail Matveev stands a chance to claim the reward. Currently, other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, in conjunction with Interpol, are in pursuit of Mikhail Matveev.