On Friday, U.S. prosecutors in New Jersey publicly announced the indictment against Rostislav Panev, 51, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen accused of being a key developer of the LockBit ransomware gang. Phanef is currently detained in Israel and faces extradition to the United States.
LockBit is one of the most prominent ransomware groups accused of carrying out severe data-theft cyberattacks on thousands of businesses across the United States and around the world, and is believed to have paid at least $500 million in ransom alone. Authorities identified and seized LockBit’s infrastructure in a demolition operation in February, but LockBit briefly rebounded as its frontrunner, whom British and American authorities named Dmitry Khoroshev, remained at large.
Prosecutors are 3-3 per prosecutor following the arrest of LockBit affiliate Mikhail Vasiliev in Canada in 2022 and Ruslan Astamirov in the United States in 2023, with Panev now out of a total of seven LockBit members indicted to date.
