backA cross-practice team at King & Spalding obtained today final judgment, including case-terminating sanctions and a fee award, against two operators of a Russian cybercriminal enterprise responsible for infecting millions of computers with a blockchain-enabled malware equipped to mine cryptocurrency and steal users’ personal and financial information.
This decision comes on the heels of a ruling in late 2022 that Google had demonstrated that the defendants’ attempts to obtain discovery constituted “a willful attempt to defraud the Court.” The Court further found that Google had a good faith basis to believe the defendants had made an “extortionate” offer to turn over the botnet’s private cryptocurrency keys in exchange for $2 million. The Court’s forty-eight-page Opinion contained detailed factual findings regarding the defendants’ bad faith and misconduct, entered default judgment against the defendants, and awarded Google all attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses incurred since the named defendants appeared in the case, which the Court issued jointly and severally against the defendants and their counsel.