US DOJ says Chinese national arrested on malware charges in international operation | WIBQ The conversation station

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said a Chinese national was arrested in an international operation for creating and using malware used in cyberattacks, a large-scale fraud and child exploitation.

Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported on Thursday that the man, Wang Yunhe, 35, was arrested in the city-state on May 24.

The Justice Department said in a May 29 statement that Wang and unnamed others allegedly “created and distributed malware to compromise and amass a network of millions of residential Windows computers worldwide.”

From 2018 to July 2022, Wang received $99 million from the sale of the hijacked proxy IP addresses, either in cryptocurrency or fiat currency, the DOJ said.

“Wang used the illicitly earned profits to purchase real estate in the United States, Saint Kitts and Nevis, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates,” the DOJ statement said.

Wang's assets and properties included sports cars, more than a dozen domestic and international bank accounts, more than two dozen cryptocurrency wallets, luxury watches, and 21 properties in several countries.

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; editing by John Mair)