FBI's Most Wanted Hacker Lives Peacefully In Barnaul, Lives In Luxury House And BMW In Garage

JAKARTA - One of the FBI's most wanted people linked to the REvil ransomware gang is living free in a Siberian city with no sign of Russian authorities trying or acting to detain him.

DailyMail.com tracked suspected super-hacker Yevgeniy Polyanin, 28, to a $380,000 mansion in Barnaul, where he was seen driving a $74,000 Toyota Land Cruiser 200. He seemed untouchable.

His wife Sofia, 28, is openly running a cake-making business on high-end social media - including cock party cupcakes decorated with male genitalia. Yet he was accused by US authorities of extorting millions of dollars from American businesses.

The couple enjoys a luxurious lifestyle, taking a helicopter ride to the picturesque Altai Mountains nearby. The second car in the cybercriminal suspect's garage is a BMW, worth up to $108,000.

Polyanin was also accused this month by the FBI of being "involved in ransomware attacks and money laundering activities."

He is suspected of being affiliated with the REvil/Sodinokibi gang and the FBI claims to have confiscated from him US$6.1 million (Rp87.4 billion) in illicit funds, while there is a bounty of up to US$5 million (Rp71 billion) offered by the FBI for information that could lead to his arrest.

How banal and naively stereotypical, but so tue. The winter, black suv, and very plush lifestyle - «Polyanin and his wife living at his gated home, 'elite' residential complex Nevsky in Russia's mountainous Altai region» https://t.co/gK6NsSOIjl pic.twitter.com/kxNifsuynx

— Andrei Barysevich (@DeepSpaceEye) November 29, 2021

He is also seen as a major 'test case' of US President Joe Biden's request that Russian President Vladimir Putin cooperate with him in cracking down on the alleged cybercriminal.

But there seems little prospect for this as Polyanin's relatives and neighbors emphasize that they have no contact over the FBI's allegations from Russia's FSB counter-intelligence service or the police.

Russia has been accused by the West of turning a blind eye to hackers targeting the US and Europe from its territory. DailyMail.com has also contacted the FBI to determine what will happen to the suspect now that he is found.

Polyanin and his wife have spent the last few days avoiding journalists and cutting phone calls while living in their gated home in the 'elite' Nevsky housing complex, in Russia's Altai mountain region, where the curtains are almost permanently closed.

He explained that he didn't want to talk while personally convincing his retired mother Svetlana Polyanina, 58, who lives in the same city, that the FBI allegations were 'false.'

He was initially very concerned about the US claims, he said, and told a reporter he could not find his son after the mega-hacking allegations first surfaced.

"I'm very worried, aren't you worried?" said the mother. "I won't tell you anything about his job."

He added: “I've been taking pills since this came out.... I've lost four kilograms in three days.”

While denying he was a programmer, he admitted to alluding to some coverage of the FBI allegations in the Russian media: “I don't know if it's true or not. what they say in the newspapers." Added the mother quoted by Dailymail.com

Polyanna said she couldn't find her son, adding: 'Maybe he's with the police now. Start with Putin, everything will soon become clear."

But when the son finally contacted her six days after the allegations surfaced, the mother said: “Please don't bother us. We're all fine. He called, everything is fine. It's all fake. He's on vacation."

Despite his luxurious new home, valued at around $380,000, Polyanin remains officially registered in his dingy Soviet-era flat on a block originally built for Interior Ministry employees, such as police, in Barnaul.

Apart from her iPhone 8, her mother shows no other signs of wealth.

Polyanin's sister, Anna, 35, when contacted by worried neighbors after the FBI allegations emerged, replied that the family had no contact with Russian authorities or media. He refused to meet with a reporter to discuss the allegations against his younger brother.

While Polyanin turned down many opportunities to respond to the FBI's claims, a middle-aged neighbor said locals were familiar with the FBI's claims, and were not bothered by them.

Asked if he knew about the US allegations against Polyanin, he said: 'Yes, yes, yes, I heard about it.' Asked if he had read the story that his next door neighbor was wanted by US authorities, he said: 'Yes.' But they weren't surprised at the accusation either: 'Nooo....'

Previously Polyanin, the child, was recovering from a serious car accident in 2018 involving the Mercedes Benz E-200 taxi he was riding in Moscow. He required months of treatment and then sued for damages for the accident in which he suffered multiple injuries.

Polyanin and Sofia have been together since they were students in Barnaul, and in February she showed what looked like a wedding ring in a post promoting her cake business. He also opened the couple's new address online on Novgorodskaya Street.

A few days after her 28th birthday on March 4, she shared a photo of the cake she made for him, which also appeared around the time the couple was eating.