Russian Cybercriminals to Be Released in Major Prisoner Swap

The United States and international allies agreed Thursday to release eight Russian nationals – including several detained for major cybercrimes – as part of the largest post-Cold War prisoner swap with the Kremlin.

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American officials announced the release of eight Russians held in prisons across the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland in exchange for 16 people who had been wrongfully detained in Russian custody. Three American citizens, including former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, were among those freed as part of the historic agreement.

Here’s what we know so far about the four Russian cybercriminals expected to be released as part of the exchange:

Vladimir Dunaev: In January 2024, Dunaev was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for developing Trickbot, which enabled hackers to deploy ransomware and commit a broad range of financial thefts. The Department of Justice in 2021 said Dunaev managed the malware’s execution, developing popular browser modifications and helping the malware evade detection from security software while stealing from financial institutions, schools districts, utility companies, government entities and the private sector (see: Trickbot Developer Pleads Guilty in US Court).

Vladislav Klyushin: Klyushin, 43, was sentenced to nine years in prison in September 2023 for orchestrating a sophisticated hack-to-trade scheme that generated around $93 million through securities trades based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said at the time that Klyushin “hacked into American computer networks to obtain confidential corporate information that he used to make money illegally in the American stock market” (see: Russian Found Guilty of Insider Trading in Hacking Case).

Alexander Vinnik: After more than five years of litigation, Vinnik was extradited to the U.S. in 2022 for operating BTC-e, a criminal cryptocurrency exchange that laundered over $4 billion of criminal proceeds. He pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in May to money laundering conspiracy after investigations showed his involvement in carrying out illegal activities on the exchange from 2011 to 2017 (see: Cryptohack Roundup: BTC-e’s Alex Vinnik Pleads Guilty).

Roman Seleznev: Otherwise known online as track2, Bulba or Ncux, Valeryevich was sentenced in 2017 to serve 14 years in a U.S. prison for his role in a $50 million cyberfraud ring. Seleznev pleaded guilty to defrauding banks out of $9 million and participating in an international hacking ring that fraudulently withdrew money from 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities across the globe in under 12 hours (see: Russian Receives Record-Setting US Hacking Sentence).

In exchange for the eight Russians, the Kremlin also released political activists, journalists, authors and filmmakers arrested for speaking out against the Kremlin and its illegal invasion of Ukraine, as well as prominent critics who worked with opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death in February.

“Their brutal ordeal is over,” President Joe Biden said Thursday about the Americans and others released by Russia. “They’re free.”