323/69 Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, a 44-year-old Ukrainian national who was extradited from Ireland to the United States, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the Conti ransomware operation. Conti was one of the cybercrime groups that caused significant damage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors stated that Lytvynenko worked with others involved in deploying Conti ransomware against victims in the United States and abroad.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Conti was used to attack more than 1,000 computers and networks between 2020 and 2022. The FBI estimated that, by January 2022, victims had paid at least USD 150 million in ransom related to the malware. The group’s attack methods included breaching victims’ networks, encrypting files, stealing data, and demanding ransom payments while threatening to publish the stolen data if victims refused to pay. Its targets included victims in 47 U.S. states and 31 other countries.
Lytvynenko admitted that he joined the Conti conspiracy in September 2021 and possessed data stolen from eight victims in the United States and four victims outside the United States. Court documents also stated that he was tasked by Conti members with writing a “loader,” a tool commonly used to install or launch other malware in later stages of an attack. Lytvynenko is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10, 2026, and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The case is part of Operation Riptide, an FBI operation aimed at disrupting cybercriminals, infrastructure, and financial networks linked to online fraud and ransomware.
Source: https://hackread.com/extradited-ukrainian-admits-conti-ransomware-attacks/