This case involves a member of the cyber organized criminal group “The Dark Overlord” (TDO), an organization that was known for their ransom and extortion scams. Beginning in 2016, the defendant was involved in a conspiracy that encompassed hacking several organizations in health, entertainment, finance, commercial, real estate, and transportation, stealing personal information from the systems they hacked, including for instance medical records, and then seeking ransom from the targets. Companies would usually have to pay a ransom of between USED 75,000 and 350,000 in bitcoin. The defendant’s role in the conspiracy was creating, validating, and maintaining communication, payment, and virtual private network accounts that were, inter alia, used to send threatening and extortionate messages to the victimized companies within the Eastern District of Missouri, where the defendant was ultimately tried.

The defendant was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy, two counts of aggravated theft, and three counts of threatening to damage a protected computer on 8 November 2017. The U.S. subsequently requested the extradition of the defendant from the UK. The defendant was ultimately extradited in late 2019 and arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shirley Padmore Mensah on 18 December 2019, where he pleaded not guilty. On 21 September 2020, the defendant eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay USD 1,467,048 in restitution.