New York: The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has revealed the arrest of a Chinese national as part of an international operation targeting the creation and utilization of malware for cyberattacks, large-scale fraud, and child exploitation.
According to reports from Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, the individual in question, 35-year-old Wang Yunhe, was apprehended in the city-state on May 24. This arrest follows a notable crackdown last August, where 10 Chinese citizens with multiple nationalities were charged with laundering over $2 billion through the Asian financial hub.
In a statement dated May 29, the DOJ outlined that Wang, along with unnamed accomplices, allegedly “created and disseminated malware to compromise and amass a network of millions of residential Windows computers worldwide.” The operation reportedly spanned from 2018 until July 2022, during which Wang accrued $99 million from the sale of hijacked proxied IP addresses, both in cryptocurrency and fiat currency.
These infected IP addresses were then utilized by cybercriminals to circumvent financial fraud detection systems, resulting in the theft of “billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, and federal lending programs.” The DOJ highlighted instances such as fraudulent losses exceeding $5.9 billion from 560,000 unemployment insurance claims originating from compromised IP addresses.
According to the DOJ, Wang utilized the illicit proceeds to acquire real estate in various countries including the United States, St. Kitts and Nevis, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. His assets included luxury cars, over a dozen domestic and international bank accounts, numerous cryptocurrency wallets, luxury watches, and 21 properties across multiple countries.
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Matthew S. Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, described the case as resembling a screenplay, illustrating a scheme where access to malware-infected computers worldwide facilitated criminal activities, including financial theft, bomb threats, and the exchange of child exploitation materials.
The DOJ emphasized that the operation was a collaborative effort involving multiple agencies led by law enforcement in the U.S., Singapore, Thailand, and Germany.
