Ryuk ransomware operator gets 2-year sentence after extorting victims for $1.2 million
An Armenian Ryuk operator received a two-year U.S. prison sentence and $1.2 million in victim restitution.
Karen Vardanyan, 35, was sentenced to two years in U.S. federal prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,219,106 in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy and computer fraud. Prosecutors called him a core Ryuk member and said the group launched more than 2,400 attacks and took at least $15 million in ransoms, including a Universal Health Services incident that cost $67 million. He was arrested in Kyiv and extradited from Ukraine in July 2025. Ryuk, first seen in 2018, has been linked to Russian cybercriminals and to operators of Trickbot.
- Vardanyan got two years in prison and $1.22 million restitution.
- Prosecutors cited over 2,400 Ryuk attacks and at least $15 million paid.
- He was arrested in Kyiv and extradited from Ukraine in July 2025.
- A prior Ryuk hit on Universal Health Services cost $67 million.
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An Armenian national was sentenced to two years in U.S. federal prison after pleading guilty in July to charges related to multiple ransomware attacks. Karen Vardanyan, 35, will also have three years of supervised release and will have to pay $1,219,106 in restitution to victims of the cyberattacks he launched. Vardanyan was extradited from Ukraine in July 2025 after being arrested in Kyiv. Prosecutors accused Vardanyan of being a core member of the Ryuk ransomware gang, noting in court documents that he and his co-conspirators launched over 2,400 ransomware attacks on victims around the world, including state and local municipalities. The attacks “severely disrupted these entities’ abilities to function by restricting access to data and impacting communications,” prosecutors said. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the FBI and several other U.S. agencies warned that Ryuk actors were heavily targeting hospitals across the country. Hospital chain Universal Health Services was hit with a Ryuk attack that ultimately cost the company $67 million. The DOJ said Vardanyan and his team received at least $15 million in ransoms from their attacks over the years. Vardanyan personally launched several ransomware attacks and extorted more than $1 million from victims before he was placed on an international wanted list by the FBI. He pleaded guilty on July 8 to conspiracy and fraud in connection with computers. Ryuk was first detected in August 2018, and the malware has previously been linked to Russian cybercriminals. U.S. officials took down Ryuk’s money laundering operations and experts tied the ransomware gang to a Russian group that also manages the Trickbot malware. Several other members of the group have been identified and arrested over the last three years, including another Armenian national, Levon Georgiyovych Avetisyan, and two Ukrainians — Oleg Nikolayevich Lyulyava and Andrii Leonydovich Prykhodchenko, both 53. A Russian man pleaded guilty in 2023 in an Oregon federal court to laundering funds for Ryuk over the course of three years after he was accused of being a middleman for the group alongside 13 unnamed co-conspirators.
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Jonathan Greig
is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.