DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A UKRAINIAN NATIONAL HAS BEEN EXTRADITED FROM SPAIN and was scheduled to be arraigned at federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon, May 1. A superseding indictment was unsealed charging the defendant, Artem Stryzhak, with conspiracy to commit fraud, extortion and related acts in connection with computers, and for his role in a series of international attacks using the Nefilim ransomware. Stryzhak, a Ukrainian citizen, was arrested in Spain in June 2024 and extradited to the United States on April 30. United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy is scheduled to preside at the arraignment. As he is deemed a flight risk, a detention memo has been issued.
The superseding indictment against Stryzhak alleges that he deployed Nefilim ransomware to encrypt computer networks in countries around the world, including within the Eastern District of New York. Nefilim’s preferred ransomware targets were companies located in the United States, Canada or Australia, and with more than $100 million in annual revenue. These ransomware attacks caused millions of dollars in losses, both from ransomware payments and damage to victim computer systems.
The perpetrators of Nefilim typically customized the ransomware executable file for each victim, creating a unique decryption key and customized ransom notes.
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