A Russian man accused of recruiting someone to install malware on a Nevada company's computer appeared in federal court this week.

The Department of Justice says 27-year-old Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov tried to get an employee to install malware which would reportedly give him access to the company's system.

The DOJ says that Kriuchkov would then threaten to make the company's data public unless it paid a ransom.

Officials say he promised to pay that employee $1 million after the malware was installed. They say Kriuchkov then gave the employee a burner phone, and instructed him to leave the burner phone in airplane mode until after the money was transferred. 

He was arrested in Los Angeles earlier this week and is charged with one county of conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer.

If convicted, Kriuchkov faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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