Money trail backs leaked chats from extortion crew that walks into US law firms
Cryptocurrency transactions lend credibility to parts of a purported leak from Russian extortion crew Silent Ransom Group (SRG), according to blockchain researchers.
Chainalysis said some wallet addresses in the material match its existing intelligence, although it could not authenticate the entire collection.
It posted: "While we cannot speak to the totality of claims documented in the leak, we can confirm that certain leaked SRG addresses sit downstream of millions of dollars in ransomware payments that SRG has extorted from victims." Despite its name, SRG is known for stealing data and demanding payment rather than deploying ransomware.
Its methods include callback phishing and physical intrusions.
The FBI warned in May that people posing as IT support staff were entering law offices and copying files onto USB drives.
Chainalysis said the transaction histories of two SRG wallet addresses detailed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of funds sent from the wallet of a known SRG member.
The company believes the funds it observed flowing through the leaked addresses came from a large extortion payment made by a victim in mid-2026, and were used to pay for SRG's expenses, such as members' wages and IT infrastructure.
"Our confidence stems from the leaked addresses' transaction history," said Chainalysis.
"Several payment addresses contained within the leaks source their funds from confirmed SRG ransom payments.
"For example, one of the Silent members' wallets specified in the leaked chats is funded entirely from a $10 million+ victim payment that SRG collected in mid-2026, and which we were tracking before the leak." Blockchain analytics company Crystal Intelligence separately examined the leaked chats and traced payments to wallets identified in them.
The chats claim SRG received about $207 million from 27 firms between April and September 2026.
Crystal could not verify that total, although it traced funds to an upstream collection wallet that received about 2,675 Bitcoin over its lifetime.
Crystal identified a range of ways SRG spent this money.
Sometimes the funds would be sent directly to affiliates, but the group had ways of swapping the crypto for cash they could actually use.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.theregister.com — the content belongs to The Register.
