Alleged Jabber Zeus Coder ‘MrICQ’ in U.S. Custody

A Ukrainian man described as Yuriy Igorevich Rybtsov, 41, who previously faced a 2012 indictment for conspiring with a prolific hacking group, is now in U.S. custody after being arrested in Italy, with officials stating he arrived in Nebraska on 9 October.

The indictment, filed by prosecutors in Nebraska, had previously identified him by the online handle “MrICQ,” and described him as a developer for the Jabber Zeus gang, which used a custom ZeuS variant to steal banking credentials and relay alerts via Jabber for each victim’s one‑time passcode entry.

The Jabber Zeus crew allegedly created a payroll‑fraud scheme employing dozens of money mules to funnel deposits to associates in Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and the group laundered proceeds through electronic currency exchange services, according to the DOJ‑level filings cited in the piece.

The article notes that the gang’s leadership included Maksim Yakubets, known as “Aqua,” who later led Evil Corp, and that the group used malware such as Dridex to siphon tens of millions of dollars from US and European victims. Penchant for chat‑based coordination is illustrated by myNetWatchman founder Lawrence Baldwin, who reportedly intercepted Jabber Zeus chats that helped law enforcement assemble cases against the gang.

The piece also references a longstanding FBI reward for Bogachev, the alleged Zeus author, who remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list with a standing $3 million bounty.