OFAC Sanctions 3 People Tied to Cybercrime Network

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three Chinese nationals for their ties to a “residential proxy botnet” called 911 S5 that allows hackers to hide their locations and evade fraud detection systems. The designations target Yunhe Wang, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng along with Spicy Code Company Limited, a company used by Wang to buy real estate, and Tulip Biz Pattaya Group Company Limited and Lily Suites Company Limited, other companies owned by Wang.

Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the three people used “their malicious botnet technology to compromise personal devices, enabling cybercriminals to fraudulently secure economic assistance intended for those in need and to terrorize our citizens with bomb threats.”