The owner of ChronoPay, Pavel Vrublevsky, who was imprisoned for 2.5 years
The owner and founder of the ChronoPay payment system in Russia, Pavel Vrublevsky, who stayed in a Russian prison for a cyber-attack on the payment system of the Aeroflot Airline for more than 2 years, decided to commit new cybercrimes while distributing malware, working with porn websites, as well as performing extortion, and blackmailing businesses and managers.
The well-known Russian newspaper Vedomosti informs that
Pavel Vrublevsky pleaded guilty to a DDoS attack on the website of Assist
Company. This company is one of the key competitors of ChronoPay. As a result
of the attack, it lost a contract with Aeroflot. He has already served time in
jail for this crime. All popular Russian and foreign media wrote numerous
articles about the crime and punishment for Pavel Vrublevsky and his gang.
Just a few years ago, well-known security expert Brian Krebs
accused the ChronoPay processing company and its owner Pavel Vrublevsky of
participating in attacks on Mac users using the Mac Defender fake anti-virus
software.
It is also known that back in 2010, a member of the State
Duma Committee on Information Policy, Ilya Ponomarev, sent a deputy’s request
to the head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs. The official claimed that Vrublevsky is well-known on the Internet
under the RedEye nickname, that he owns a network of porn websites, Crutop.nu
forum for porn webmasters, and an illegal payment system called Fethard.biz.
Forbes magazine wrote a long article about the porn business of RedEye in 2006.
The fact that Vrublevsky and RedEye are the same person has been repeatedly
confirmed by an independent expert and author of the Krebs security blog, Brian
Krebs.
According to numerous Russian media, after being released
from prison several years ago, Pavel Vrublevsky, who had not been able to
engage in the legal business, fell back into old patterns in the cybersphere,
having already descended to outright extortion against Russian banks, financial
companies, and their management.
Pavel Vrublevsky came out with a proposal to one of the
payment systems to pay him a monthly subscription fee for nondisclosure of the
facts of the company’s professional and commercial activities that became known
to him. Otherwise, he threatened to publish this information, including
unreliable data, on dubious websites and the BadBank telegram channel.
It is worth noting that this was not the single case of
blackmailing in the post-prison biography of Pavel Vrublevsky. It is known that
he extorted money from several banks and other financial institutions,
including the Royal Pay and QIWI payment systems. In case of refusal to pay,
the extortionist resorted to various schemes of blackmailing, as well as
outright slander against intractable partners in the media and social networks.
In addition, Russian media write that Sergei Maizus and Alexei Nikitenko maybe
his accomplices in extortion and blackmail.
It is also known that top managers of the Russian Uralsib
Bank suffered from his actions. The law enforcement agencies of the Russian
Federation have already opened criminal cases on the fact of extortion and
laundering of dirty funds by the ChronoPay company of Pavel Vrublevsky.
According to the Russian media, the Bank of Russia revoked the banking license
of the “Platezhniy Standard” Non-Bank Credit Organization LLC that was used by
ChronoPay to launder dirty money from illegal online casinos in Russia, the
sale of pornography, and other sources. In addition, as the Bank of Russia
reported in the media, “Platezhniy Standard” was suspected of financing
terrorism since the organization was associated with dubious operations in the
field of transactions and cash withdrawal.
For his new crimes, including extortion and money
laundering, Pavel Vrublevsky can serve in a Russian prison for at least another
5-10 years. Therefore, he decided to end his activities in Russia and flee to
another country, probably to one of the countries in Latin America. That is why
he gives interviews for money to the American media. However, according to
Russian journalists, cybercrimes, including extortion, have no nationality. In
the majority of cases, attackers cannot hide in other countries. It is worth
noting that even local authorities are not happy to see such people in their
country unless they are handcuffed.
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