WASHINGTON. May 16 (Interfax) - The United States Department of the Treasury added Russian citizen Mikhail Matveyev to its sanctions list on Tuesday because, according to Washington, he is involved in cyberattacks on the infrastructure of U.S. law enforcement agencies and enterprises.
"Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), designated Mikhail Matveyev for his role in launching cyberattacks against U.S. law enforcement, businesses, and critical infrastructure," the Department of the Treasury said in a statement.
Matveyev was born in 1992 and is a resident of Kaliningrad, the statement said. The courts of the District of New Jersey and the District of Columbia issued indictments against Matveyev, it said. The U.S. Department of State, in turn, announced "an award of up to $10 million for information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of Matveyev."
According to the Department of the Treasury, "Matveyev has been a central figure in the development and deployment of the Hive, LockBit, and Babuk ransomware variants, among others." In particular, in 2021, websites affiliated with the Babuk ransomware attacked "the police department of a major U.S. city," it said. "In a public interview, Matveev claimed responsibility for posting the police department's stolen data online," it said.
In addition, Matveyev has been linked to cyberattacks on numerous U.S. businesses, including a U.S. airline.