Biographies · Companion to The Bloodline

Wanted in the West.
Untouched at home.

Ninety-six names, graded. Who holds the roof, who stands under it, and what it would take to make the arrangement expensive.

96 named individuals 5 files live Tier 1 first
The Protected · the roof held over them
The Root · 2007–2014

The Business Club

Zeus. GameOver Zeus. The crew that turned bank fraud into an institution and became the common ancestor of every Russian ransomware brand that followed. Every name below came out of this room.

Enter the file →
Penchukov (Tank) arrest · WIRED
Evgeniy Bogachev
Tier 1 · The Architect
Evgeniy Bogachev
Slavik

Author of Zeus and GameOver Zeus. The most-wanted cybercriminal on the FBI list, a standing bounty, and life untouched inside Russia.

Tier 1 · No. 3Open the file →
 Vitaly Kovalev
Tier 1 · The CEO
Vitaly Kovalev
Stern

The businessman behind TrickBot and Conti. A fortune visible on-chain, held one name removed, and nothing seized.

Tier 1 · No. 1Open the file →
 Maksim Yakubets
Tier 1 · The In-Law
Maksim Yakubets
Aqua

Evil Corp's leader. He married into the FSB and drew cover pay from the family that once ran Russia's prosecutions. The roof, made of relatives.

Tier 1 · No. 2Open the file →
A separate root · The Tolerated

Not everyone left alone is being protected. This file comes from outside the room above: no Zeus lineage, no patron, no service that ever approached him. What he has is the absence of interference, which the US Treasury describes in its own designation as activity "tolerated by local authorities provided that he remains loyal to Russia."

Mikhail Matveev
File 05 · Four Fingers
Mikhail Matveev
Wazawaka

Wanted on eight counts with ten million dollars on his head. Russia charged him with the smallest offence available, released him inside two days, and gave him a curfew. Nobody there reported the sentence.

File 05Open the file →

Biographies is a living record. Each file is updated as new material lands rather than treated as one-and-done. Confidence is graded inside every file: Confirmed, Credible, and Analyst inference.