The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:
The Department of Justice today announced that a grand jury
in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special
Counsel’s Office. The indictment charges twelve Russian nationals for
committing federal crimes that were intended to interfere with the 2016 U.S.
presidential election. All twelve defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian
Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military. These GRU officers, in
their official capacities, engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the
computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the
Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of Hillary
Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the names
"DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0" and through another entity.
“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America
in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
“Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is
resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice
anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are
hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to
exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So
long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the
Constitution, they will not succeed.”
According to the allegations in the indictment, Viktor
Borisovich Netyksho, Boris Alekseyevich Antonov, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Ivan
Sergeyevich Yermakov, Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev, Nikolay
Yuryevich Kozachek, Pavel Vyacheslavovich Yershov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev,
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin, and Anatoliy
Sergeyevich Kovalev were officials in Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the Russian
government’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
In 2016, officials in Unit 26165 began spearphishing
volunteers and employees of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including
the campaign’s chairman. Through that process, officials in this unit were able
to steal the usernames and passwords for numerous individuals and use those
credentials to steal email content and hack into other computers. They also
were able to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through
these spearphishing techniques to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor
the computer activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of files of
malicious computer code to steal passwords and maintain access to these
networks.
The officials in Unit 26165 coordinated with officials in
Unit 74455 to plan the release of the stolen documents for the purpose of interfering
with the 2016 presidential election. Defendants registered the domain
DCLeaks.com and later staged the release of thousands of stolen emails and
documents through that website. On the website, defendants claimed to be
“American hacktivists” and used Facebook accounts with fictitious names and
Twitter accounts to promote the website.
After public accusations that the Russian government was behind the
hacking of DNC and DCCC computers, defendants created the fictitious persona
Guccifer 2.0. On the evening of June 15, 2016 between 4:19PM and 4:56PM,
defendants used their Moscow-based server to search for a series of English
words and phrases that later appeared in Guccifer 2.0’s first blog post falsely
claiming to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for the hacks in the hopes of
undermining the allegations of Russian involvement.
Members of Unit 74455 also conspired to hack into the
computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies
that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of
elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.
To avoid detection, defendants used false identities while
using a network of computers located around the world, including the United
States, paid for with cryptocurrency through mining bitcoin and other means
intended to obscure the origin of the funds. This funding structure supported
their efforts to buy key accounts, servers, and domains. For example, the same
bitcoin mining operation that funded the registration payment for DCLeaks.com
also funded the servers and domains used in the spearphishing campaign.
The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:
Count One alleges a criminal conspiracy to commit an offense
against the United States through cyber operations by the GRU that involved the
staged release of stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016
president election;
Counts Two through Nine charge aggravated identity theft for
using identification belonging to eight victims to further their computer fraud
scheme; Count Ten alleges a conspiracy to launder money in which the
defendants laundered the equivalent of more than $95,000 by transferring the
money that they used to purchase servers and to fund other costs related to
their hacking activities through crypto currencies such as bitcoin; and Count Eleven charges conspiracy to commit an offense against
the United States by attempting to hack into the computers of state boards of
elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and
other technology related to the administration of elections.
There is no allegation in the indictment that any American
was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were
communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no allegation in the
indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the
outcome of the 2016 election.
Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless
proven guilty in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence
that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, to
the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.
This case was investigated with the help of the FBI’s cyber
teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San Francisco and the National Security
Division. The Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. There will be no
comments from the Special Counsel at this time.
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