The small organization has been led by four East European nationals that pleaded guilty to conspiring to cyber-crime activities and “engage in a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) arising from their providing ‘bulletproof hosting’ services between 2008 and 2015”. The hosting services have been used by cybercriminals across the globe to distribute malware and attack financial institutions and private persons across the United States. Official documents released to the public show that Russian nationals Aleksandr Grichishkin, Andrei Skvortsov, as well as the Lithuanian Aleksandr Skorodumov, and Pavel Stassi of Estonia founded the bulletproof hosting organization and have been active members the entire time.