Romanian national Daniel Christian Hulea pleaded guilty to computer fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. NetWalker ransomware attacks often targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The attacker obtained nearly 1,600 Bitcoin ransomware payments as a result of his attacks, netting him and another affiliate about $21.5 million. Hulea is being ordered to forfeit these ill-gotten gains and is also being hit with an additional $14.9 million penalty to compensate for the attacks. Hulea was arrested in July 2023 and extradited from Romania to the US. He pleaded guilty in June.
Read more…
Source: MSN News
Related:
- UK: Derbyshire police officer investigated over alleged use of AI to ‘create evidence’
June 13, 2026
A Derbyshire police officer is being investigated over claims they used artificial intelligence (AI) to create evidence in criminal cases. The investigation is the first known case of its kind in UK criminal justice and has seen the cop removed from frontline duties. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was “engaging with” defence lawyers and the courts over ...
- Meta, Starlink and Microsoft team up with the FBI to delete over 1.4 million accounts and seize millions in cryptocurrency related to huge scam networks targeting Americans
June 4, 2026
Dozens of people have been arrested, and millions of dollars in cryptocurrency seized, in a large-scale, multi-national operation against internet scammers and fraudsters. On May 18, the US Department of Justice, the FBI, Secret Service, law enforcement agencies in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Thailand, as well as multiple commercial businesses such as Meta, ...
- Dutch cops wrest 17M devices from mystery botnet’s clutches
May 29, 2026
Dutch police say they dismantled a large botnet this week comprising at least 17 million infected devices. After being tipped off by a researcher at the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NL), police began an investigation, which resulted in the discovery of 200 servers underpinning the botnet’s infrastructure located in the country. Cybercrime specialists at The Hague ...
- Cybercriminal VPN used by ransomware actors dismantled in global crackdown
May 21, 2026
A VPN service used by cybercriminals to conceal ransomware attacks, data theft, and other serious offences has been dismantled in an international operation led by France and the Netherlands, with support from Europol and Eurojust. For years, the service, known as ‘First VPN’, was promoted on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a trusted tool for remaining beyond ...
- German Citizen Charged with Laundering Funds Linked to Prominent Darknet Marketplace “Dream Market”
May 13, 2026
Owe Martin Andresen, the suspected main administrator of Dream Market, one of the largest illicit darknet marketplaces before its 2019 shutdown, has been indicted for an alleged scheme to launder funds from Dream Market’s administrator accounts. Andresen was arrested last week in Germany on parallel charges brought by the German government. “Andresen allegedly channeled commissions earned ...
- Disgraced US gov software contractor found guilty of database destruction
May 8, 2026
A Virginia man, Sohaib Akhter, faces decades in prison after a jury convicted him of being involved in a scheme to delete approximately 96 databases containing US government data. The events of the case transpired around two weeks before the twin brothers allegedly involved were fired from their jobs at a software supplier to the US ...