Ukrainian police detain gang who laundered funds for Russian hacking groups

Ukraine's national police detained suspects on Monday for stealing funds from cryptocurrency wallets and laundering profits for cybercrime organizations.

The arrests took place as part of a joint investigation with US authorities, the Ukrainian National Police (NPU) said in a press release on Monday.

An undisclosed number of suspects were detained following house searchers across the country.

Authorities said they seized both hardware resources and software programs used to infect users with malware and launder criminal proceeds. From images shared by Ukrainian police, the group appears to had been developing fake cryptocurrency wallets, which they would had most likely infected with malware.

"During the investigation, police found that the suspects were disguised under various nicknames on the Darknet network," the NPU said on Monday.

"They used an extensive network of fictitious personas, as well as financial systems, and conducted complex operations to launder criminal proceeds in the interests of cybercriminals."

A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice did not return an email sent on Monday seeking additional information on the investigation. NPU officials did not return a request for comment seeking more details about this case and the group's operations, most of which remain surrounded in mystery.