Meduza: Russian neo-Nazis steal cryptocurrency from a fundraising site for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Rusich sabotage and assault reconnaissance group (DSHRG) takes part of the donations sent to the Happy New Life charity fund to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and refugees. about this . found out Meduza

Rusich, a detachment of Russian neo-Nazis fighting in Ukraine on the side of the Russian army, owns a crypto wallet listed on the Happy New Life website as one of the fund’s assistance channels, said financial analyst Artem Irgebaev, who has studied the DSHRG cryptocurrency infrastructure in detail.

Happy New Life CFO Daniel Ovcharenko said that the site had previously listed the fund's cryptocurrency address. He does not know how the address of Rusich's wallet could be there.

“I set up a wallet for the needs of the fund on MetaMask — and it’s completely different for me, except that the first three characters are the same [with Rusich’s wallet],” Ovcharenko told Meduza, admitting that he hardly worked on the Happy New Life website.

The fund was registered in Dnipro on June 1, 2022, follows from the Ukrainian Unified State Register. Ovcharenko also provided journalists with evidence that the foundation was active.

According to Irgebaev, Rusichi could have hacked the Ukrainian site and replaced the crypto wallet.

“[When I googled the wallet address], telegram immediately

posts came out of the Z-channels, where they called for donations for uniforms from members of the pro-war activist group Rusich.

I thought that Russian hacking was interference in the American elections. But it turned out to be a clipboard-malware (malicious program - ed.) to assemble on a bulletproof vest, ”said the analyst.

In addition, according to him, from July to October 2022, DSHR received $1,787 from three different shady drug marketplaces. Irgebaev suggests that the sellers of these sites could also become a victim of the Rusich malware or could simply pay for the group's services. According to the third version, those who sent money to Rusich could use the marketplace from the dark web to anonymize their transfer.

Irgebaev said that about $1,100 came to Rusich wallets from mining alone. More than $160,000 came to Rusich’s crypto wallets via direct transfers, Meduza notes. Irgebaev admits that “all these transactions and replenishments may not be voluntary donations, but stolen with the help of malware.”

Rusich leader Aleksey Milchakov confirmed to Meduza information about deals with drug stores, the hacking of the website of a Ukrainian charitable foundation, and the theft of cryptocurrencies using malware.