Who Runs the Ransomware Group 'The Gentlemen?'

The Gentlemen ransomware gang, the second most active ransomware group by victim count, is led by an administrator using the nicknames Hastalamuerte and Zeta88, who has been identified as Alexander Andreevich Yapaev, a 36-year-old from Izhevsk, Russia. The group attracts affiliates with an unusually generous 90/10 revenue split and has claimed at least 332 victims since mid-2025 by targeting internet-facing devices like VPNs and firewalls. Security researchers traced Yapaev's identity through multiple cybercrime forum registrations, email addresses, Telegram accounts, and hacked Russian government databases.