Russian national arrested in US for conspiracy to commit cyber attack

NEW YORK, Aug 26, 2020, TASS. Russian citizen Egor Kriuchkov has been arrested in Los Angeles, California for alleged conspiracy to commit a cyber crime, the US Justice Department noted in a statement Tuesday (Aug 25), TASS reported.

According to the statement, the Russian, 27, between July 15 and August 22, conspired with associates to recruit an employee of an unnamed US company in Nevada to introduce malware with their help, which was supposed to grant the Russian and associates unobstructed access to the company’s systems. According to the US authorities, Kriuchkov was allegedly plotting to extract databases of the company for extortion purposes.

The Justice Department noted that the Russian had allegedly offered $1 million to join the criminal scheme. A few days ago, he was contacted by FBI representatives and later decided to leave Nevada for Los Angeles to flee the country. On August 22, he was arrested in the city and made his initial appearance in federal court. He is facing a charge of conspiracy to deliberately harm a protected computer.

The authorities underlined that Kriuchkov had entered the US under tourist visa. TASS has not been able to obtain a comment from the Russian embassy in Washington.