A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania indicted seven Russian intelligence officers for computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the defendants are part of a conspiracy team of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). They are Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, Evgenii Mikhaylovich Serebriakov, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, Alexey Valerevich Minin.
Russian hackers tried to undermine the international anti-doping organization
One of their goals is to release stolen information as part of a disinformation campaign to “undermine, retaliate against, and otherwise delegitimize” the efforts of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
All of the defendants committed “persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions” that affected U.S. individuals, corporations, and international organizations worldwide.
In 2016, WADA released the McLaren Report, which exposed Russia’s systematic subversion of the drug testing process before, during, and after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. As a result, approximately 11 Russian athletes were excluded from the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) also banned Russian athletes from its 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.
