Ryuk Member Karen Vardanyan Sentenced to Two Years in U.S. Prison
Ryuk affiliate Karen Vardanyan was sentenced to 24 months in U.S. prison and ordered to pay $1.2 million restitution.
Armenian national Karen Vardanyan, known online as Maneeken, was sentenced in the United States to 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release after extradition from Ukraine. He pleaded guilty to illegally accessing corporate networks and helping deploy Ryuk ransomware against U.S. organizations between November 2019 and April 2020. A Michigan company paid 200 Bitcoin, then worth over $1.1 million, and the court ordered $1,219,106 in restitution. The wider conspiracy collected about 1,610 Bitcoin, more than $15 million then, while Ryuk overall was estimated at $150 million before operators rebranded as Conti.
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