Russian Citizen Sentenced to Prison for Hacking into U.S. Companies and Enabling Major Cybercrime Groups to Extort Tens of Millions of Dollars

A court in the Southern District of Indiana today sentenced a Russian citizen, Aleksei Volkov, to 81 months in prison for assisting major cybercrime groups, including the Yanluowang ransomware group, in carrying out numerous attacks against U.S. companies and other organizations. Volkov facilitated dozens of ransomware attacks throughout the United States, causing over $9 million in actual losses and over $24 million in intended losses. Volkov was indicted for this activity in both the Southern District of Indiana and Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Police in Rome, Italy, then arrested Volkov, and he was extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to charges from both indictments.

According to court documents, Volkov, 26, of St. Petersburg, Russia, was an "initial access broker," that is, a person who specializes in gaining unauthorized access to computer networks and systems of corporations and organizations and selling that access to other cyber threat actors such as ransomware groups. Volkov found vulnerabilities in computer networks and systems, identified ways to access those networks and systems without authorization, and sold that illicit access to conspirators who were also cybercriminals.

Volkov's co-conspirators then used the access Volkov provided to infect the affected computer networks and systems with malware. This malware encrypted the victims' data and prevented the victims from accessing it, damaging their business operations. The conspirators then demanded that the victims pay them a ransom in cryptocurrency - sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars - in exchange for restoring the victims' access to the data and promising not to publicly disclose the hack or release victims' stolen data on a "leak" website. In some cases, the victims paid the ransom and in others the conspirators posted the victims' confidential data on the leak site. If the victims paid the ransom, Volkov received a share of the money.

On Nov. 25, 2025, Volkov pleaded guilty to four counts from the Southern District of Indiana indictment, namely, unlawful transfer of a means of identification, trafficking in access information, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft; as well as two counts from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania indictment, namely, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering after the two cases were consolidated in the Southern District of Indiana. As part of his plea, Volkov admitted that he and his co-conspirators hacked into numerous victims' computer networks, stole their data, deployed ransomware, demanded payment in cryptocurrency to exchange for restoring access to the data, and divided the ransom payments among themselves. In fact, they demanded tens of millions of dollars in ransom and received millions. Volkov agreed to pay full restitution to victims including at least $9,167,198.19 to known victims to compensate them for their actual losses as well as to forfeit equipment he used for his crimes.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Wheeler II for the Southern District of Indiana, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Special Agent in Charge Timothy O'Malley of the FBI Indianapolis Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs of the FBI Philadelphia Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut Edward Chang (on detail to CCIPS), Assistant U.S. Attorneys MaryAnn T. Mindrum and Matthew B. Miller for the Southern District of Indiana, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wolfe for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs worked with the Government of Italy to secure the arrest and extradition from Italy of Volkov.