Officials Announce International Operation Targeting Transnational Criminal Organization QQAAZZ that Provided Money Laundering Services to High-Level Cybercriminals
U.S. Victims of Various Cybercriminal Malware Schemes throughout the United States Had Stolen Multi-Million Dollar Funds Laundered by QQAAZZ
Fourteen members of the transnational criminal organization, QQAAZZ, were charged by a federal grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania in an indictment unsealed today. A related indictment unsealed in October 2019 charged five members of QQAAZZ. One additional conspirator, a Russian national, was arrested by criminal complaint in late March 2020 while visiting the United States, bringing the total number of charged defendants to 20. Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady for the Western District of Pennsylvania, made the announcement today.
The QQAAZZ members, acting in concert with cybercriminals across the world, are accused of conspiring to launder money stolen from victims of computer fraud in the United States and elsewhere. More than 40 house searches were conducted in Latvia, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy, with criminal prosecutions initiated in the United States, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The largest number of searches and arrests were carried out in Latvia by the Latvian State Police (Latvijas Valsts Policija), and an extensive bitcoin mining operation associated with the group was seized in Bulgaria. Today’s announcement is in coordination with announcements by Europol and several law enforcement agencies across Europe who collaborated with the United States to develop parallel investigations and prosecutions of the QQAAZZ members in their own countries
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/officials-announce-international-operation-targeting-transnational-criminal-organization