PANews reported on December 20 that according to Bloomberg, according to the charges of the US Department of Justice, Israeli national Rostislav Panev has allegedly been a developer and coder for the LockBit ransomware group since around January 2022, and received about $230,000 in cryptocurrency transfers as part of his work. According to Panev's lawyers, he is a professional software developer who communicates with LockBit through the Telegram messaging application. Defense attorney Sharon Nahari said in an email statement that Panev developed the tool at the request of the organization, but knew nothing about the intended use of the software and cooperated with law enforcement to provide information.