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The U.S. Department of Justice announced a reward totaling up to $11 million for information about Ukrainian national Volodymyr Viktorovich Tymoshchuk or his alleged ransomware conspirators. The September 9, 2025 announcement accompanied a superseding indictment alleging roles in LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim schemes. The charge is an allegation, not a finding of guilt.
Who is Volodymyr Tymoshchuk?
The Justice Department identifies Tymoshchuk as a Ukrainian national and says he is also known by the aliases deadforz, Boba, msfv, and farnetwork. In a superseding indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York on September 9, 2025, prosecutors allege he participated in ransomware schemes involving LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim. DOJ’s announcement states that an indictment is merely an allegation and that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Why do reports give different reward amounts?
The headline figure of $10 million comes from SecurityWeek’s September 10, 2025 report. It described up to $10 million for information leading to Tymoshchuk’s arrest and/or conviction, plus up to $1 million for information about other key leaders. The DOJ release describes the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program offer as totaling up to $11 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction or location of Tymoshchuk or his conspirators. These are differently framed descriptions of the offer; the official DOJ total is up to $11 million. SecurityWeek’s report gives the $10 million and $1 million breakdown.
The reward was announced in September 2025. Its continued availability as of October 4, 2026 is not established here, so the figures should be read as the announced offer, not confirmation that it remains active.
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What does the indictment allege?
DOJ says the alleged activity spans December 2018 to October 2021 and involved victims in the United States and several European countries. Separately, prosecutors allege that LockerGoga and MegaCortex compromised more than 250 U.S. companies and hundreds of companies abroad from approximately July 2019 through June 2020. These are distinct periods and scopes, not a single count covering every alleged scheme.
LockerGoga and MegaCortex
According to DOJ’s account of the superseding indictment, the two ransomware operations compromised more than 250 U.S. victim companies and hundreds more worldwide during the approximate July 2019–June 2020 period. DOJ says many attempted extortions were thwarted after law enforcement alerted victims before ransomware was deployed; an attempted extortion should not be mistaken for a successful encryption or payment.
Nefilim
DOJ alleges that Nefilim administrators provided affiliates access to the ransomware in exchange for 20 percent of ransom proceeds. The announcement does not establish that every attack resulted in payment or quantify a definitive total of losses. DOJ characterizes the attacks as causing millions of dollars in losses.
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Can victims decrypt LockerGoga, MegaCortex, or Nefilim?
DOJ says decryption keys for LockerGoga and MegaCortex were publicly released through the No More Ransomware Project in September 2022. Its announcement does not say that Nefilim decryption keys were released. The existence of those keys is not a guarantee that every affected system or backup can be recovered; victims should consult incident-response professionals and verify that a key applies to their specific infection before attempting recovery.
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