Security News > 2022 > July > Last member of Gozi malware troika arrives in US for criminal trial
That's certainly the case for a troika of cybercriminals alleged to have been behind the infamous Gozi "Banking Trojan" malware, which first appeared in the late 2000s.
Kuzmin, as we explained at the time, was effectively the COO of the group, hiring coders to create malware for the gang, and managing a bunch of cybercrime affiliates to deploy the malware and fleece victims - an operating model known as crimeware-as-a-service that is now used almost universally by ransomware gangs.
Kumin, too, ended up convicted-but-immediately-set-free-for-deportation in 2016, after just over three years locked up in the US while on trial.
The Colombians, it seems, then contacted the US diplomatic corps, assuming that the US still considered Paunescu a "Person of interest", and asking whether the US wanted to apply to extradite him from Colombia to stand trial in America.
Mihai Ionut Paunescu is alleged to have run a "Bulletproof hosting" service that enabled cybercriminals throughout the world to spread the Gozi virus and other malware and to commit numerous other cybercrimes.
As the DoJ notes, Paunescu's criminal nickname was Virus.