Now you see him, now you don’t.
Ukrainian Hennadiy Kapkanov, a shady figure from the world of cybercrime, and the alleged head of the cybercrime organization Avalanche, has disappeared just days after his arrest by Ukrainian police.
In an international operation on Nov. 30 that included efforts by 30 countries, the Ukrainian National Police arrested Kapkanov in his apartment in Poltava, 350 kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Kapkanov resisted arrest, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun.
But a court in Poltava released Kapkanov on Dec. 2, after prosecutors failed to make the case that the alleged cybercrime boss, who had been wanted for four years, should remain in detention.
He promptly disappeared.
Now Kapkanov has again been placed on the wanted list in Ukraine, while Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko promised to find both the suspect and those responsible for his release.
“I do not exclude that the newly appointed prosecutor of Poltava Oblast will lose his position. An investigation into this official is underway right now,” Lutsenko said on Dec. 7 in Kyiv, news agency Interfax reported.
He says law enforcement was working “thoroughly” to locate suspect. “According to our intelligence, (Kapkanov) hasn’t left Ukraine.”
“Unpleasant as it is for me to admit it, the fault is not with the judiciary, but the prosecutors, who made their case for (Kapkanov’s) detention while not mentioning article No. 115 (of the Criminal Code, assault on a person’s life and health),” Lutsenko said, referring to Kapkanov’s armed resistance to arrest.
European Union and U.S. officials announced late on Dec. 1, that they had shut down the Avalanche cybercrime group, which has been accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, taking five key suspects into custody – three of whom were Ukrainians, including Kapkanov.
The global effort to take down the network involved close support between prosecutors and investigators from 30 countries, including Ukraine, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Singapore, and the United States.
Reportedly, Avalanche consists of 27 people of different nationalities, with 10 of them being Ukrainians.
The Avalanche network was estimated to involve as many as 500,000 infected computers worldwide. Victims of malware infections spread by the group have been identified in more than 180 countries.
Europol says Avalanche caused an estimated 6 million euros in losses in concentrated cyberattacks on online banking systems in Germany alone.
The monetary losses associated with malware attacks conducted by the Avalanche network are estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of euros worldwide, although exact calculations are difficult to make due to the high number of malware families managed through the platform.
“(Kapkanov) will be convoyed to Germany or convicted in Ukraine,” Vadym Troyan, the chief of Ukraine’s National Police promised on Dec. 1, following the suspect’s arrest.
But Kapkanov’s whereabouts are now unknown.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be found at [email protected].
