Police in Ukraine have detained Ukraine’s most wanted cybercriminal – for the second time
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry announced on Feb. 26 that it had arrested Ukrainian Hennadiy Kapkanov, who ran Avalanche – a worldwide cybercrime network. Kapkanov is wanted in 30 countries worldwide.
Kapkanov was detained in Kyiv with a forged passport on Feb. 25. He is now being transferred to his hometown Poltava, where a court will decide on the conditions of his detention.
Police conduct a search of a flat that suspected cybercriminal Hennadiy Kapkanov was renting in Kyiv on Feb. 25.
This is the second time police have arrested Kapkanov.
In an international operation in November 2016 that included efforts by 30 countries, the Ukrainian National Police arrested Kapkanov in his apartment in Poltava, 350 kilometers east of Kyiv. Kapkanov resisted arrest, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko at that time announced the breaking up of the Avalanche organization by dint of the cooperation between 30 multinational law enforcement agencies.
Poltava’s Zhovtnevy Court, however, failed to rule that the alleged cybercrime boss should remain detained – and ordered his release. Kapkanov, who had already been on the Interpol most wanted list for four years at that time, promptly disappeared.
Ukraine’s Cyberpolice hope the court won’t let Kapkanov get away so easily this time.
“We hope that he will be taken into custody this time. Only the court can decide, though,” Cyberpolice spokesperson Yulia Kvitko told the Kyiv Post.
Kapkanov has been charged with several criminal offenses, including money laundering, hacking into computer systems and computer networks, large-scale fraud, and armed resistance to law enforcement agents.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Verdun in France and Lüneburg Police of Germany have also issued charges against Kapkanov.
Headed by Kapkanov, Avalanche was a major player in the illegal market for cybercrime services for seven years. It sent out ransomware and laundered money globally. Police estimate that the network caused losses of more than 6 million euros in Germany alone, and perhaps hundreds of millions of euros worldwide.
The Kyiv Post’s technology coverage is sponsored by Ciklum and NIX Solutions. The content is independent of the donors.
