The United States has put seven people on the sanctions list who are part of the Trickbot cybercriminal group associated with intelligence agencies.

Vitaly Kovalev was named the leader of the group. The publication tracked how the special services “punished” him, and when he became a member of the cybertroops, they were forgiven.

“The current members of the Trickbot Group are connected to the Russian intelligence services. The preparation of the Trickbot Group brought it into line with the goals of the Russian state and the goals previously pursued by the Russian intelligence services. This included targeting the US government and US companies,” the US Treasury said in a statement.

Vitaly Kovalev (“Bentley” and “Ben”) is called the leader of Trickbot (aka Conti).

According to the Cheka-OGPU, on November 16, 2015, the Investigative Department of the FSB of the Russian Federation initiated a case against the leaders of Conti under article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, part 2 (Creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs). At the same time, a search was conducted in Kovalev’s apartment, and he was detained. And then, together with accomplices who were in Russia (some of the group’s representatives disappeared and were put on the wanted list), he was released.

The verdict for Kovalev and his accomplices was handed down only in 2022. He received three years in prison and was immediately released from serving his sentence due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.

It turns out that after his arrest in 2015, Kovalev began to cooperate, and in 2020 (according to the US Department of Justice) he became a member of Russian cyber troops against the backdrop of an FSB investigation of a criminal case.