A 28-year-old Kosovo citizen, Ardit Kutleshi, has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges related to the creation and operation of Rydox, an illicit online marketplace used by cybercriminals to buy, sell and exchange stolen personal information and tools for cybercrime and fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The FBI shared the Justice Department’s announcement, according to which Rydox was used to facilitate the theft and sale of personal identifying information belonging to victims in the United States.
“Ardit Kutleshi’s guilty plea for operating the Rydox marketplace exposes a sophisticated scheme to profit from stolen identities and cybercrime tools,” said A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
According to court documents, Rydox conducted more than 7,600 transactions since at least 2016 involving stolen personally identifiable information (PII), stolen access devices, identification documents, as well as tools and services used to commit cybercrimes.
The Justice Department said the activities generated at least $232,000 in proceeds.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Troy Rivetti said Kutleshi and his brother, Jetmir, operated Rydox for their own financial benefit. Jetmir Kutleshi previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December 2025 before being deported to Kosovo.
“Cybercriminals Ardit Kutleshi and his brother Jetmir operated the Rydox marketplace for their own benefit, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from a marketplace where cybercriminals could purchase information and tools to conduct and expand their criminal activities online,” Rivetti said.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said Rydox offered cybercrime tools and sensitive information, including stolen identities and login credentials belonging to thousands of people.
The FBI and its international partners subsequently seized the marketplace’s infrastructure. In December 2024, U.S. authorities obtained a court order to seize the Rydox.cc domain, preventing its owners and third parties from continuing to use it to trade stolen personal information and cybercrime tools.
Kutleshi pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He was arrested by law enforcement authorities in Kosovo in December 2024 and extradited to the United States in 2025.
Kutleshi is scheduled to be sentenced on February 9, 2027. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum sentence of 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering. The final sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after considering the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and other applicable legal factors.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office in cooperation with Kosovo’s Special Prosecutor’s Office, the Kosovo Police Directorate for the Investigation of Cybercrime, Albania’s Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), Malaysia’s Royal Malaysia Police Commercial Crime Investigation Department and Malaysia’s Attorney General’s Chambers.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance in the investigation.
The case highlights the international nature of the investigation, with authorities from Kosovo, the United States, Albania and Malaysia cooperating to dismantle the Rydox marketplace and pursue those accused of operating it.
