A Ukrainian national who built and operated the Ransom Cartel ransomware-as-a-service platform has been sentenced to 16 years in a U.S. federal prison. Dmytro Budorin ran the criminal operation from 2021 until his arrest following a coordinated takedown by Ukrainian and U.S. law enforcement. Ransom Cartel, also tracked as RansomHub’s predecessor, struck hospitals, universities, and critical infrastructure operators across North America and Europe, collecting millions of dollars in ransom payments from victims who had no other way to recover their encrypted data.
U.S. prosecutors described Budorin as the technical architect who wrote the ransomware’s encryption engine, built the victim-facing negotiation portal, and recruited affiliates — the freelance hackers who carried out the actual intrusions — through private cybercrime forums. The 16-year sentence is one of the longest ever handed down in a U.S. court for a ransomware offense, reflecting the scale of harm caused: more than 200 confirmed victims, including multiple hospitals that had to divert emergency patients during active outbreaks.