Ryuk ransomware member pleads guilty in the US, faces 15 years in prison

A 34-year-old Armenian national, Karen Serobovich Vardanyan, pleaded guilty to providing initial access and assisting the deployment of Ryuk ransomware on multiple U.S. organizations between November 2019 and April 2020; prosecutors say the operation collected roughly 1,610 BTC (about $15 million at the time) and inflicted high-value ransoms including a 200 BTC payment. The report places Ryuk as an active, high-impact ransomware operation from 2018 to mid-2020, notes members migrated to Conti after Ryuk’s shutdown, and records Vardanyan’s indictment and scheduled sentencing.