If they were to start a consultancy, even if they are as skilled as anyone else, they’d have an uphill battle from the get go; and have to either stick to their home market, or heavily discount their services. Either way making less than from their ransomware.

If you live in the third world, that immediately puts you on the radar of corrupt government officials and organized criminal organizations that want to extort you.

The ransomware gig allows you to stay small and keep a low profile. Nobody has to know that you are raking in the cash until you pack up your family and book it to Tahiti.

> With their current approach they will almost certainly get traced eventually and end up in jail.

Prison in a first world country is a lot better than getting executed, watching your family get executed, or getting kidnapped and forced into slave labor for the local mafia boss.

If your backup process "isn't that simple", then you should make it that simple. Otherwise failure looms.

Particularly this conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23951941

Depends. If they are a couple guys (or a single guy), and it's a one shot for him, he has very good odds of getting away with it. Cleanly launder his BTC and then move somewhere not suspicious and keep a low profile. At the end of the day, $4m is not that much money (ie: not able to afford multiple Ferraris).