Who Is Evgeniy Bogachev? Hacker With $3 Million Bounty From FBI May Be Working With Russian Government

The FBI has announced a $3 million bounty for Evgeniy M. Bogachev, a notorious hacker/cybercriminal who operates in Russia.

The hacker—who goes by the aliases slavik, lucky12345 and pollingsoon—has been indicted in the United States and is charged with a number of crimes including computer fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

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At its peak, Bogachev’s operation put him in control of between 500,000 and one million computers, according to the New York Times. With that massive amount of computing power, Bogachev was able to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank accounts of his victims.

The hacker hit businesses across the U.S. and the world, including a pest control company in North Carolina, a police department in Massachusetts, and Native American tribe in Washington.

At one point, he had extracted so much wealth from others that he purchased two villas in France. He also reportedly stashed a fleet of cars across Europe so he would never have to rent a vehicle while traveling.

Beyond his hacking for profit, Bogachev is also believed to have been tapped by the Russian government to help aid in surveillance efforts, according to a report from the New York Times.

Russian officials reportedly took interest in Bogachev’s operation as a means of gathering information from military and intelligence services regarding the conflicts in eastern Ukraine and Syria.

Activity linked to Bogachev’s network also point to attempts to gain access to sensitive information on infected devices in the United States, including searches for documents containing phrases like “top secret” and “Department of Defense.”

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While there are no direct ties known of publicly, Bogachev has also been tied to Russia’s ongoing meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. He was one of six people targeted by sanctions issued by the Obama administration in December—a list that included four members of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the G.R.U., and another hacker named Alexsey Belan.

The ties between Bogachev and Russian intelligence aren’t entirely concrete, but are enough to cause considerable suspicion.

The hacker lives openly and unafraid of arrest or extradition in the resort town of Anapa, located on the Black Sea in southern Russia. According to his file with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, which has helped the FBI keep tabs on him, Bogachev is operating under the supervision of a special unit inside Russia’s Federal Security Service.