2 Russians indicted for hacking, stealing crypto from PH firm

MANILA, Philippines — Government prosecutors have indicted two Russian citizens for hacking their former company’s information technology system and stealing 12.2 million XRP cryptocurrency worth P340.74 million.

Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev (23 counts) and Sergey Yaschuck (three counts) are facing cases before the Regional Trial Court of Taguig City for violating Republic Act (RA) 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

The two, however, have managed to leave the country before the indictment.

Avdeev and Yaschuck previously worked as consultants for coins.ph, which is owned by BETUR, a company engaged in remittance, transmittal of money, foreign currency exchange, and other money transactions.

Coins.ph filed the complaint after its security team discovered that 12.2 million XRP were missing from one of its Bitgo hot wallets.

The missing funds were traced to have been moved to an external wallet address by an unknown malicious actor.

The investigation by its security team of the affected servers discovered that Yaschuck’s account was involved.

On the other hand, from October 9 to October 17, there were suspicious logins in its “OpenVPN” where employees can access the internal network remotely. Avdeev previously managed “OpenVPN” administrator account of the company.

“In their capacity as complainant’s consultants, they had legal access to complainant’s network infrastructure, secure access key protocols and server systems. When their tenure ended, however, they retained such access and used them without right,” the DOJ said in an eight-page resolution.

Avdeev and Yaschuck also attempted to transfer the stolen funds through identified cryptocurrency services to hide their origin and confuse investigators.

The resolution was signed by Assistant State Prosecutor Jenny de Castro, and Deputy State Prosecutor Olivia Laroza-Torrevillas and approved by Prosecutor General Benedictor Malcontento.

READ: Hong Kong crypto firm hit by $200-M hack