SINGAPORE: The High Court has rejected applications by a Chinese suspect held in Singapore and wanted in the United States for alleged offences linked to a global malware network.
Wang Yunhe, who is in his 30s, had sought a ruling that the police had seized certain items “unlawfully”, as well as an order for the Singapore state to provide him with the originals and other evidence of certain documents.
Wang was arrested in Singapore in an international operation in May 2024 at his home for his suspected involvement in cybercriminal activities in the US.
According to a judgment dated Jan 15, Wang was indicted in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, for conspiracy to commit computer fraud, aiding and abetting such fraud, and conspiracies to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
The US Government alleged that Wang had been involved in developing and distributing malicious software with the intent to infect residential computers worldwide, selling access to Internet Protocol addresses that were associated with the network of compromised computers.
Customers then allegedly used Wang’s proxy service to conceal their identities while committing cybercrime worldwide, including bank fraud, loan fraud, credit card fraud, bomb threats and child exploitation crimes.
Singapore arrested Wang after the US put in an extradition request, with US officials alleging that Wang had run a major botnet for nearly a decade.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) quoted FBI Director Christopher Wray as saying on Wednesday that the “911 S5” botnet – a network of malware-infected computers in nearly 200 countries – was likely the world’s largest.
Justice Chua Lee Ming dismissed Wang’s application for quashing orders against a lower court’s decisions.
Wang had sought a ruling that the police’s seizure of several items was unlawful, including multiple debit or credit cards, phones, thumb drives, a laptop and a computer.
The magistrate in the lower court had dismissed these applications and Wang mounted a judicial review in the High Court asking for the dismissal to be relooked.
Justice Chua said the judicial review application “was in truth an appeal in disguise”.
He upheld the magistrate’s decisions and dismissed the application, ordering Wang to pay costs of S$8,000.