- Yunhe Wang is accused of using 911 S5, which infected 19 million computers
- Wang, 35, was arrested in Singapore earlier this month
- He spent much of his winnings on luxury cars and a property in the Caribbean
The FBI, along with numerous other government agencies, have taken down the world’s largest botnet farm and arrested its leader, the Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday.
Yunhe Wang, 35, is accused of using 911 S5, which infected about 19 million computers worldwide, and more than 600,000 in the US alone.
Wang would then sell access to those infected computers to criminals who then used them for crimes as vile as child exploitation, as well as identity theft and fraud, making about $99 million, according to officials.
In fact, the criminals to whom Wang also sold access attempted to steal approximately $5.9 billion in Covid-19 relief funds from the US government.
According to the indictment, Wang used his illicit profits to purchase 21 properties in the United States, China, Singapore, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and St. Kitts and Nevis, where he allegedly obtained citizenship through investments.
The domain for Wang’s website has been seized in what federal officials have dubbed Operation Tunnel Rat
Among the toys Wang bought with his illicit profits included a 2022 Ferrari F8 Spider SA, a BMW i8, a BMW X7 M50d and a Rolls Royce, all of which were seized by the US government.
Wang was arrested in Singapore and search warrants were served there and in Thailand, said Brett Leatherman, the FBI’s deputy assistant director for cyber operations. a LinkedIn message.
Authorities also seized $29 million in cryptocurrency, Leatherman said.
Cybercriminals used Wang’s network of residential zombie computers to “steal billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers and account holders, and federal loan programs since 2014,” according to an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
The administrator, Wang, sold access to the 19 million Windows computers he had hijacked (more than 613,000 in the United States) to criminals.
Those criminals “in turn used that access to commit a staggering series of crimes that victimized children, endangered people’s safety and defrauded financial institutions and federal lending programs,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland .
He said criminals who bought access to Wang’s zombie network were responsible for an estimated more than $5.9 billion in losses from utility fraud.
Those criminals “in turn used that access to commit a staggering series of crimes that victimized children, endangered people’s safety, and defrauded financial institutions and federal lending programs,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland .
Officials estimate that 560,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims came from compromised IP addresses.
Wang allegedly managed the botnet through 150 dedicated servers, half of which were rented from US-based online service providers.
In its press release, the Ministry of Justice thanked the police and other authorities in Singapore and Thailand for their assistance.