The co-founder of NiceHash, the well-known cryptocurrency hash power broker, has reportedly been arrested in Germany.
Matjaz Skorjanc’s arrest was made over US charges that he, along with several other hackers, is responsible for stealing millions of dollars.
Skorjanc was reportedly detained on Monday, reports 24UR.com, a Slovenian news site.
He is wanted in the US for setting up and operating Darkode, a black marketplace that operated between 2008 and 2013. d Europol once described it as “the most prolific English-speaking cybercriminal forum to date.”
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Skorjanc is also wanted for creating and deploying Mariposa, one of the largest known botnets. Discovered in 2008, the botnet was mostly involved in cyberscamming and denial-of-service attacks. Prior to its dismantlement in December 2009, it managed to infect one million computers, effectively turning them into “zombies.”
Back in June, Hard Fork reported how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was chasing hackers – including Skorjanec – over an alleged plot to create and distribute malware through Darkode.
At the time, American Thomas McCormack, Spaniard Florencio Carro Ruiz, Slovenes Mentor Leniqi and Matjaz Skorjanc, were each charged with racketeering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud.
Each racketeering conspiracy charge included extortion, identify theft, and access device fraud, a Department of Justice (DoJ) press release confirmed.
Skorjanc has already served almost five years in prison for creating the Mariposa botnet. He was released in late 2017 – bet someone’s regretting that right about now.
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