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Crime & Courts

Three Russian Nationals and Two Companies Indicted in Northern District of Ohio Over Alleged 'Bulletproof Hosting'

Prosecutors allege two St. Petersburg-based hosting companies knowingly leased servers to cybercriminals; the case is at the charging stage and all defendants are presumed innocent.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 8, 2026, 8:24 p.m. ET
Three Russian nationals and two companies have been indicted in the on charges connected to alleged "bulletproof hosting" services, according to reporting by the Highland County Press. The named defendants are Alexander Alexandrovich Volosovik, 43, Kirill Andreevich Zatolokin, 34, and Yulia Vladimirovna Pankova, 29, all of St. Petersburg, Russia, along with Medialand LLC and ML.Cloud LLC, both headquartered in St. Petersburg. The charges listed are conspiracy to commit and aid and abet computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the outlet reported. According to the same reporting, the government alleges that Medialand LLC, owned by Volosovik, and ML.Cloud, owned by Pankova, provided computer servers and related internet services knowingly leased to cybercriminals so they could conduct criminal activity and evade law enforcement detection. Prosecutors further allege that Volosovik advertised the services on criminal forums; that the two companies gave criminal client co-conspirators the means to infect victim computers with malware and ransomware and to extort victims for money and cryptocurrency; that they supported criminal marketplaces, registered fraudulent domains, and provided a platform to launch phishing and brute-force attacks; and that 42 victims in 21 states were targeted by criminal groups using their services. The FBI Cleveland Division, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of Foreign Assets Control are listed among the agencies involved in the investigation. The case is at the charging stage and remains open. As stated in the announcement, an indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Revision history

  1. Version 19 Aug 2026, 00:53

    First published.

  2. Version 19 Aug 2026, 00:24current

    First published.

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