A Chinese national has been arrested for his role in operating an internet scheme that was used to defraud billions of dollars from the U.S. government and fund his lavish lifestyle, which included buying luxury cars and property around the world, the Department of Justice announced, USA Today reports. YunHe Wang, 35, was arrested on May 24 and charged with creating a massive network of hijacked computer devices, also known as a "botnet," that was used to conduct cyber attacks, fraud, child exploitation, bomb threats, and export violations, DOJ alleged. Wang administered the botnet, called "911 S5," through about 150 servers worldwide from 2014 to 2022, according to an indictment.
About 76 of the servers were leased from online service providers based in the U.S., the indictment said. The botnet infected over 19 million IP addresses in nearly 200 countries, including over 613,000 IP addresses in the U.S. The Justice Department announcement comes after Wang and his two co-conspirators, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng, were sanctioned by the Department of Treasury for their alleged involvement with the malicious botnet. DOJ imposed sanctions on three luxury companies Wang owned or controlled. Authorities also searched Wang's residences and seized assets valued at about $30 million as well as identifying other property valued at an additional $30 million, prosecutors said. "The conduct alleged here reads like it’s ripped from a screenplay," said Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export control at the Department of Commerce. "A scheme to sell access to millions of malware-infected computers worldwide, enabling criminals over the world to steal billions of dollars, transmit bomb threats, and exchange child exploitation materials — then using the scheme’s nearly $100 million in profits to buy luxury cars, watches, and real estate."