Foreign recruitment Mikhailov was reportedly recruited in
Lyon at an Interpol conference set up by USPS investigator Gregory Crabb in 2005.
Pavel Vrublevsky Mikhailov had known
Pavel Vrublevsky, the CEO of
ChronoPay, since about 2007. In 2011, and reportedly at times earlier, Mikhailov, in addition to his deputy,
Dmitry Dokuchaev, and a
Kaspersky Lab employee,
Ruslan Stoyanov, had caused classified information about Vrublevsky to be passed along to
U.S. intelligence agencies. Mikhailov and Stoyanov had reportedly intended to sell ChronoPay's database for $10 million.
Shaltai Boltai In early 2016, Mikhailov's FSB unit had reportedly begun the process of recruiting
Vladimir Anikeyev, the ringleader of
Shaltai Boltai. By around the summer of 2016, Shaltai Boltai had reportedly been taken over by Mikhailov. In October 2016, Mikhailov had reportedly become alarmed when he learned that Anikeyev had been detained by another unit within the FSB.
2016 U.S. election During the 2016 U.S. election, Mikhailov was reportedly involved in talks with management from
Sberbank about creating an
NSA-like special internet service that would be controlled by Mikhailov. Around late summer 2016, Mikhailov had reportedly come to the attention of his colleagues in the FSB after U.S. reports had linked Vladimir Fomenko, the owner of King Servers and an alleged business partner of Vrublevsky, to a cyber attack on voter registration systems in Arizona and Illinois. ==Arrest==