Inside the Evil Corp family’s £225m crime empire that robs Brits while flaunting Lamborghini with ‘thief’ sign and pet TIGERS – The US Sun

Inside the Evil Corp family’s £225m crime empire that robs Brits while flaunting Lamborghini with ‘thief’ sign and pet TIGERS – The US Sun

One of the first rules of a bank robber is to hide his wealth – but the Russian clan accused of stealing hundreds of millions of pounds are keen to flaunt their ill-gotten gains.

This week, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia imposed sanctions on several members of the same family who they believe are hacking money from accounts online.

Maksim Yakubets with his father Viktor (center) and his brother Artem (r)

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Maksim Yakubets with his father Viktor (center) and his brother Artem (r)Photo credit: NCA
Maksim and his supercar after being stopped by the police

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Maksim and his supercar after being stopped by the police
Maksim married Alyona Benderskaya in 2017

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Maksim married Alyona Benderskaya in 2017Photo credit: Alyona Yakubets

But alleged criminal mastermind Maksim Yakubets, who has a £3.8million bounty on his head, doesn’t appear to be too afraid of being caught.

The hacker group the 37-year-old computer geek leads is called Evil Corp, and the fluorescent Lamborghini supercar he drives has the word “Thief” as a personalized license plate.

Members of the gang, who cause misery to charities, schools, small and large businesses and ordinary Brits, have been photographed posing with piles of cash.

They are said to operate from the basements of cafes in the Russian capital Moscow and from huge skyscrapers.

Will Lyne, head of cyber intelligence at the National Crime Agency (NCA), tells The Sun: “They are probably one of the most significant cybercrime groups of all time.”

Sanctions imposed by Britain and its allies on 16 people earlier this month mean they could all be arrested if they leave Russian soil.

But there’s little chance that President Vladimir Putin will put them in prison, as Evil Corp has ties to the brutal dictator’s secret service, the FSB.

Maksim’s father-in-law Eduard Bendersky is a big game hunter who was part of the shadowy Vympel unit, which carries out assassinations on behalf of the state.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) believes it was Bendersky who protected Maksim from Russian authorities when he was identified as the head of Evil Corp five years ago.

Will reveals: “The vast majority of criminal groups, particularly Russian cybercrime groups, are financially motivated and we do not believe they have such connections.

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Maksim poses with piles of cash stolen from victims, including Brits

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Maksim poses with piles of cash stolen from victims, including BritsPhoto credit: NCA
The Yakubets also have a pet tiger cub

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The Yakubets also have a pet tiger cubCredit: Supplied

“But from Evil Corp in particular, we know that before 2019 they took on contracts to carry out cyber attacks against NATO allies on behalf of the Russian state.

“We know that Bendersky put his arm around the Evil Corp group to protect it after its dissolution in 2019.

“He took steps and measures to protect them from internal Russian state investigations and the like.”

They are probably one of the most significant cybercrime groups of all time

Will Lyne

The Yakubets are believed to have been involved in criminal enterprises before turning to hacking.

According to an official Evil Corp report, Ukrainian-born Maksim’s father, Viktor Yakubets, had “significant historical links to money laundering activities.”

But it was the tech-savvy Maksim who saw a future in cybercrime.

The report said: “Maksim took this family business into the 21st century by dedicating himself to cybercrime and bringing his father, brother and cousins ​​with him.”

“By leveraging this family knowledge, Evil Corp became experts at laundering the proceeds of their cybercriminal activities.”

However, Viktor has denied any wrongdoing.

In 2021, he told the BBC his son was not guilty, commenting: “He was not questioned, he was not interrogated, there were no trials that would prove his guilt.”

Maksim loves to display the spoils of his heinous crimes

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Maksim loves to display the spoils of his heinous crimesPhoto credit: NCA

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Transport worth £225 million

It is believed that Maksim began organized hacking in 2007 when he was just 20 years old.

Called “aqua,” his group’s Jabber Zeus malware withdrew funds directly from victims’ bank accounts.

One of the accused men, Vyacheslav Penchukov, was arrested in Switzerland two years ago.

Evil Corp became a criminal group in 2014, with the hackers going on group vacations with their wives and girlfriends.

A year later, their malware called Dridex was said to have led to £20 million being stolen from the UK alone.

Will says: “Some people describe them as mafia-like, they have some family connections, they have been around for a long time and they have the leader of the OCG (Organized Criminal Group) in relation to Maksim Yakubets.

“They probably look a little different than a lot of other cybercrime groups today.

“They were involved in various types of criminal activities.”

Maksim became rich enough to keep tiger and lion cubs and to spend an estimated half a million pounds on his wedding to businesswoman Alyona Benderskaya in the summer of 2017.

Footage from the extravagant ceremony at a golf club north of Moscow showed stunning Alyona floating down the aisle in a fairytale white dress – while the groom’s face was hidden in every shot.

Two years later, the US and UK named Maksim as the key player behind the hacker group considered the most prolific in the world.

They targeted 43 countries and stole at least £225 million from victims worldwide.

Will believes the hacking operation struggled to operate as effectively after the NCA named Maksim as the man behind Evil Corp in 2019.

He comments: “I think it has changed the way they operate and the type of cybercrime they carry out.

“It hasn’t stopped their operations completely.

“It put her on pause for a while. But when they came back, they did things differently, for example with a much smaller number of victims.”

More Evil Corp members were named and sanctioned this week.

These include Maksim’s brother Artem and their father Viktor.

Secretly serving Putin

Maksim's father-in-law and fellow gang member Eduard Bendersky

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Maksim’s father-in-law and fellow gang member Eduard Bendersky
Maksim's glamorous wedding is said to have cost £500,000

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Maksim’s glamorous wedding is said to have cost £500,000Photo credit: Caramel Studio
The bride was pictured, but the groom was only seen from behind

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The bride was pictured, but the groom was only seen from behindPhoto credit: Caramel Studio

His father-in-law Bendersky is also on the list.

Bendersky was part of a special FSB unit and reportedly offered to pay almost £200,000 for the right to hunt an endangered species of mountain sheep.

The investigative website Bellingcat reported that Benderskiy’s Vympel group carried out several assassination attempts abroad on behalf of the Kremlin.

These include the murder of dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a park in Berlin in 2019 by a murderer on a bicycle.

Bellingcat obtained telephone data that showed that Bendersky communicated regularly with the attacker Vadim Krasikov before the attack.

Will says: “According to our information, he is a former member of the FSB, but apparently he still has ties to the Russian state.”

The 16 Evil Corp members identified by the NCA

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The 16 Evil Corp members identified by the NCAPhoto credit: NCA

The U.S. Treasury Department also says Maksim “directly supports the Russian government’s malicious cyber efforts.”

It is these intelligence connections that make it so difficult to bring the group to justice.

It is assumed that as long as Putin is in power, he can act with impunity.

There is a video of Maksim doing donuts, intentionally skidding his car and watching police officers.

To keep it in the family, his cousins ​​Kirill and Dmitry Slobodskoy were also previously linked to the hacker gang.

Another man punished for his membership in Evil Corp is Aleksandr Viktorovich Ryzhenkov, 31, from Uzbekistan, an old pal of Maksim.

Meanwhile, 38-year-old Russian Igor Turashev is accused of playing a key role in organizing the malware attacks.

After the sanctions against the gang were announced, Foreign Minister David Lammy said: “I am making it my personal mission to target the Kremlin with the full arsenal of sanctions at our disposal.”

“Putin has built a corrupt mafia state with himself at the center. We must fight this every step of the way, and today’s action is just the beginning.

“Today’s sanctions send a clear message to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate Russian cyberattacks – neither from the state itself nor from its cybercriminal ecosystem.”

The sanctions will help restrict the hacker group’s movements and the flow of money in and out of Russia.

There were also arrests in the UK of people suspected of being linked to LockBit cybercriminals, a subsidiary of Evil Corp.

Maksim and his brother Artem between his cousins ​​Dmitriy (l) and Kirill (r)

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Maksim and his brother Artem between his cousins ​​Dmitriy (l) and Kirill (r)Photo credit: NCA
Maksim is one of the FBI's most wanted men

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Maksim is one of the FBI’s most wanted menPhoto credit: Reuters