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The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have announced sanctions against 16 people authorities accused of being part of the most wanted cybercrime gang in the world. The Moscow-based cybercrime group, Evil Corp, is accused of extorting at least $300 million from global victims, including those in healthcare, critical national infrastructure, government, and other sectors. The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has stated that the alleged leader of the gang is Maksim Yakubets, who was supported by his father, Viktor Yakubets.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has seized $6.4 million (AUD 9.3 million) in crypto following an investigation into the alleged mastermind behind Ghost, a dedicated crypto communication platform. A 32-year-old man was arrested on September 17 and charged with five offenses, including supporting a criminal organization. This was part of AFP’s Operation Kraken. The arrest came after an analytics specialist within the AFP-led CACT deciphered the account’s ‘seed phrase’ when analyzing digital devices that were recovered from the man’s home. This meant the police were able to access cryptocurrency that was then transferred into secure storage and restrained under the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) has successfully restrained $9.3 million in cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into the alleged mastermind behind Ghost, the dedicated encrypted communication platform.https://t.co/GwYKhHqH9m — AFP (@AusFedPolice) October 1, 2024 So far, the results from Operation Kraken include: 46 arrests; 93 search warrants conducted; Intervening in 50 threats to life/threats to harm; Preventing more than 200kg of illicit drugs from harming the Australian community; Seizing 30 illicit firearms/weapons; $2.37m in cash seized; and $11.09m in assets restrained. Australian police ‘one step ahead’ in crypto operation The Federal Police said they were one step ahead of organized crime groups who try to hide profits of illicit activities, with the AFP Acting Commander Scott Raven saying: “The restraint of these assets shows the technical capabilities and powers that the AFP, and our partners through the CACT, are able to bring to bear on organised crime,” acting Commander Raven said. “Whether you have tried to hide them in real estate, cryptocurrency or cash, we will identify your ill-gotten goods and take them away from you, leaving you with nothing.” Investigations remain ongoing, with cryptocurrency experts helping with the operation alongside police, financial investigators, forensic accountants, lawyers, and other partner agency specialists. The seized cryptocurrency has been placed into a Confiscated Assets Account which is a special purpose account managed by the Australian Financial Security Authority on behalf of the Commonwealth. The funds will then be distributed by the Attorney-General as Minister responsible to benefit the community through crime prevention, intervention, or diversion programs or other law enforcement initiatives across Australia. Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram The post Australia’s ‘Operation Kraken’ sees $6.4 million of crypto seized appeared first on ReadWrite.

The latest offering from NCSoft and Amazon Games is taking Steam by storm, just as New World did before it. While we hope Throne and Liberty remains popular for a little longer than New World did there is no doubt it has got off to a flying start on Steam with hundreds of thousands of players already joining in the fun. Yes, we have had a few server errors along the way but what new MMO doesn’t have that these days?

Tighter restrictions have come into force this week (October 1) concerning gambling online in the Netherlands, with a focus on deposit limits. Gamblers will now have to consider deposit thresholds relating to a player’s net deposit during a calendar month. When the net deposit exceeds €700 ($777), there can be no further deposits made until the end of the calendar month as they will be blocked. The limit is even lower for young adults aged between 18 – 25 as the net deposit limit is set at €300.

Shockwaves have passed through the emulator community this morning as the main remaining Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx vanished without trace leading to speculation that Nintendo had “got” to the creator gdkchan. A post has now appeared on X seemingly confirming that Nintendo has reached an agreement with the creator to “stop working on the project” and remove all it’s assets. The post read: “Yesterday, gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and offered an agreement to stop working on the project, remove the organization and all related assets he’s in control of.

Hip-hop superstar Sean “Diddy” Combs has added former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer to his team to fight the federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges filed against him last month. Court filings show that the disgraced musician and producer has hired Alexandra Shapiro, a co-founder of litigation boutique Shapiro Arato Bach, and New York trial lawyer Anthony “Tony” Ricco to his counsel list. Shapiro has been representing Bankman-Fried since he was convicted on all counts last year for his role in defrauding investors.