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Organizer of hitmen from FSB's Vympel unit, along with six other Russians, accused of collaborating with hacker group Evil Corp
Cover photo: National Crime Agency (UK)
The U.S. Department of the Treasury, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have imposed sanctions on seven Russians and two Russian companies allegedly linked to the hacker group Evil Corp, according to a joint trilateral investigation by the three countries. The group’s leader, Maksim Yakubets, was indicted in the U.S. and sanctioned in 2019, along with several other members of the group.
The identities of some of the associated Russians have been revealed for the first time. The joint investigation determined that Eduard Benderskiy, the organizer of a hitman group from the FSB’s Vympel unit, was involved with the group. (The Insider previously reported on Vympel in connection with an investigation into the assassination of former Chechen field commander and asylum seeker Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park in 2019.) Viktor Yakubets, the Evil Corp leader’s father, and Maksim’s brother, Artem Yakubets, were also sanctioned, along with Yakubets' friend Aleksandr Ryzhenkov and Aleksandr’s brother Sergey.
U.S. investigators noted that Maksim Yakubets' relationship with Benderskiy — his father-in-law — as well as his employment at Russia’s National Engineering Corporation (NIK, ОАО «НИК»), where Igor Chayka, son of Russian Security Council member Yuriy Chayka, is a major investor, helped the hacker and his team operate without attracting the attention of law enforcement.