OLEKSII Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, a 44-year-old Ukrainian national and former lawyer, has been sentenced to four years in a US prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud linked to the Conti ransomware operation. The US Department of Justice said Conti was used between 2020 and 2022 to attack networks in 47 US states, 31 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The FBI estimated that victim payouts exceeded $150 million by January 2022.
According to court documents, Lytvynenko joined Conti around September 2021, helped code a “loader” used to deploy malicious software, and took part in attacks against at least 12 companies. Evidence from his online accounts showed he possessed data stolen from eight US victims and four overseas victims. Investigators also found evidence of continued ransomware activity after Conti’s 2022 shutdown, which followed leaks of the group’s internal chats and source code.
When Irish police arrested him in County Cork in July 2023, his laptop was reportedly running Cobalt Strike and an active Rocket.Chat session connected over Tor. He was extradited to the US in October 2025. Lytvynenko pleaded guilty in June; the offence carried a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.