PANews reported on May 23 that according to Cointelegraph, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, a Russian citizen suspected of developing the Qakbot malware, demanding the confiscation of more than $24 million worth of cryptocurrency. Gallyamov, 48, was accused of operating the malware since 2008 and forming a botnet by infecting thousands of computers in 2019.

Matthew Galeotti, head of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, said that this action shows that all legal means will be used to hold cyber criminals accountable. In 2023, the U.S.-led international operation destroyed the Qakbot network, and 170 bitcoins and $4 million in stablecoins were seized at the time. The indictment shows that the defendant has since switched to new means to continue deploying ransomware such as Black Basta. It is reported that access to the Qakbot botnet has been sold to the perpetrators of many global ransomware attacks, including well-known ransomware organizations such as Conti and REvil.