Overview
- U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett sentenced Deniss Zolotarjovs to 102 months in federal prison and ordered restitution with three years of supervised release to follow.
- The Latvian national was arrested in Georgia in December 2023, extradited to U.S. custody in August 2024, and pleaded guilty in July 2025 to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
- Prosecutors say he served as a negotiator for the Russia-based Karakurt syndicate, reviving stalled talks and pressuring victims by mining stolen data and by threatening to leak children’s medical records, and the group also knocked a government 911 system offline.
- Court filings document $56,551,689.19 in losses across 13 known victims linked to his activity and cite another $13 million in ransom payments, with true losses likely far higher due to underreporting.
- The FBI says he is the first identified Karakurt member prosecuted in a U.S. court, and the investigation remains active with more charges possible.