The alleged cybercriminal conduct and the lavish lifestyle it funded “reads like it’s ripped from a screenplay,” Matthew Axelrod, a senior US Commerce Department official involved in the investigation, said in a statement. Wang used money he earned from renting the botnet to buy property in those locations, according to an indictment unsealed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Authorities in Singapore and Thailand worked with the FBI on the bust, the Justice Department said. The new charges are only the latest alleged example of opportunistic fraud that has been rampant across the US since Covid-19 emerged more than four years ago. The problem got so bad that the Secret Service named a senior official as National Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator to try to claw back some of the many billions that were stolen.

---

Persons: YunHe Wang, Fraudsters, ” Matthew Axelrod, Brett Leatherman, Wang, Leatherman Organizations: CNN, Justice Department, Justice, Treasury, US Commerce Department, Royce, FBI, Court, Eastern, Eastern District of, Authorities, Service, IRS Locations: Singapore, East Asia, Caribbean, Eastern District, Eastern District of Texas, Thailand