The indictment, filed in November in the US District Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania and unsealed on Thursday, alleges that Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev conspired with a group of cybercriminals to run a phishing scheme utilising Bugat malware that stole banking information.
"Evil Corp has used the Dridex malware to infect computers and harvest login credentials from hundreds of banks and financial institutions in over 40 countries, causing more than $100 million in theft," the Treasury said. "Today’s action targets 17 individuals and seven entities to include Evil Corp, its core cyber operators, multiple businesses associated with a group member, and financial facilitators utilized by the group."
Commenting on the issue, FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich noted that Russian authorities have responded to the US request on assistance in the case of alleged cybercriminals including Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev.
"Russian government did provide a response to a mutual legal assistance treaty request," Bowdich said. "The response was helpful in the investigation to a point."
The US Justice Department and State Department meanwhile announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Evil Corp's alleged leader, Russian national Maksim Yakubets, the release said while alleging that he is directly linked to the Russian government.