Tag: Cybercrime
Angelo Martino, Ransomware Conspiracy, Florida 2023
⏱ 2 min read Angelo Martino, a 41-year-old ransomware negotiator from Land O’Lakes, Florida, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for conspiring with Blackcat/ALPHV actors to extort multiple US victims. Martino, who was hired to help victims negotiate with ransomware gangs, instead betrayed their trust by feeding their confidential negotiating positions to the gangs,…
Peter Stokes, Cyber Conspiracy, Illinois 2023
⏱ 2 min read Peter Stokes, a 19-year-old dual citizen of the US and Estonia, has been extradited from Finland to face federal cyber conspiracy charges in the Northern District of Illinois. Stokes is alleged to be a member of the notorious hacking group Scattered Spider, also known as Octo Tempest, UNC3944, and 0ktapus. The…
Nathan Austad, Computer Intrusion, New York 2025
⏱ 2 min read Nathan Austad, aka ‘Snoopy’, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to hack user accounts on a fantasy sports and betting website in the Southern District of New York. On November 18, 2022, Austad and his co-conspirators launched a ‘credential stuffing attack’ on the website,…
Jacob Butler, DDoS, Alaska 2026
⏱ 3 min read Jacob Butler, a 23-year-old Canadian man, was arrested in Ottawa, Canada, for operating the notorious KimWolf Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Internet of Things (IoT) botnet. The botnet infected over a million devices worldwide, including devices in Alaska, and was used to launch massive DDoS attacks, including one that reached a…
John Bamford, Child Exploitation, Virginia 2026
⏱ 2 min read Detective John Bamford of the Arlington County Police Department has been recognized for his outstanding work in combating child exploitation and cybercrime in Virginia and beyond. Bamford, who also serves as an FBI Task Force Officer with the Washington Field Office, has been instrumental in identifying and rescuing hundreds of child…
Keith Havener, Child Pornography Possession, Iowa 2026
⏱ 2 min read Keith Havener, a 62-year-old man from Sioux City, Iowa, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after a disturbing investigation revealed he had created and possessed over 1,000 images of child porn using artificial intelligence technology. The crimes occurred between June 1, 2024, and January 13, 2025, and involved the creation of…
Sohaib Akhter, Computer Fraud, Virginia 2025
⏱ 2 min read Sohaib Akhter, a 34-year-old Alexandria man, worked for a Washington, D.C. company that provided software products and services to over 45 federal government agencies. On February 1, 2025, Akhter used his access to obtain a plaintext password for an individual who submitted a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC)…
Deniss Zolotarjovs, Money Laundering and Wire Fraud Conspiracy, California 2025
⏱ 2 min read A ruthless ransomware negotiator who helped his gang rake in $56 million has been slapped with an 8.5-year prison sentence for conspiring to commit money laundering and wire fraud. Deniss Zolotarjovs, 35, was the go-to guy for the notorious Karakurt gang, which carried out a string of brazen cyberattacks, including a…
James Robert Smith, Child Abuse, California 2020
⏱ 3 min read In a bid to protect children from the darker side of the internet, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts is hosting a virtual webinar on May 7, 2026, at 6:30 PM (EST). The event, titled ‘Keeping Kids Safe and Secure Online’, will feature presentations from experts at…
Dread Pirate Roberts, Money Laundering, California 2013
⏱ 2 min read A Colombian kingpin is facing the heat after being extradited to the US for masterminding a massive dark web marketplace that raked in millions from illicit deals. Patrick Schmitz, 37, lived in Taganga, Colombia, but was born in Germany. The Versus Project, also known as Versus, was a top-tier dark web…
