Overview
- Ryan James Roach, who was extradited from Canada on Oct. 28, has been arraigned in U.S. federal court on charges tied to the scheme and is in custody pending further proceedings.
- A federal grand jury indicted Roach and Mathiew James Stubbings on counts of conspiracy, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentional damage to protected computers with maximum penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 fines per count.
- Prosecutors say the two ran a multi-year campaign between June 2016 and December 2019 that used virtual private servers registered under false names to deliver malware, steal login credentials, and deploy cryptomining software.
- Court filings and indictments allege the campaign targeted university networks in New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee, repurposed high-performance campus machines to mine Electroneum, damaged at least ten computers, and caused at least $5,000 in losses.
- Extradition proceedings for Stubbings remain active in Canadian courts, a development that will determine whether U.S. prosecutors can try both defendants together and could shape how investigators handle cross-border evidence and court cooperation.