Sébastien Raoult, 21, a French criminal originally from Epinal, appeared on January 27, 2023, in federal court in Seattle, after he was arrested in Morocco and extradited to the U.S, according to U.S Attorney’s office press release.
The French criminal is a member of the cybercriminal group called “ShinyHunters Group”.
The release states that Raoult will answer to an indictment with nine accounts: conspiracy for computer fraud and abuse, four accounts of wire fraud, and three accounts of aggravated impersonation, federal prosecutor Nick Brown announced.
Sébastien Raoult, aka Sezyo Kaizen, was arrested last year in Morocco and was extradited to the United States this week. Raoult and two co-conspirators were indicted by a grand jury seating in the Western District of Washington on June 23, 2021.
”Too many bad actors believe they can illegally access proprietary information and personal financial information by hiding behind a keyboard,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.
”The FBI Seattle Cyber Task Force and our experienced cyber unit work diligently to identify, arrest, and prosecute those who seek to victimize people, businesses, and industries in the Western District of Washington and around the world.”
According to the indictment, Raoult participated in a group of hackers who called themselves the “ShinyHunters”. The conspirators allegedly hacked into protected corporate computers to steal proprietary information and corporate information.
The group offered stolen sensitive data for sale and sometimes threatened to disclose or sell the stolen sensitive files if the victim did not pay a ransom. As of early 2020, ShinyHunters Group has marketed and promoted stolen data to over 60 companies in Washington State and around the world.
According to the indictment, the conspirators created websites that appeared to be login pages belonging to legitimate companies. The conspirators allegedly sent phishing emails to company employees, designed to appear to be from legitimate companies and containing links to these login pages.
When the victims provided their account login credentials on these login pages, the conspirators obtained the victims’ credentials. Thanks to these stolen identifiers, the conspirators would have accessed protected computers containing corporate data.
The ShinyHunters maintained accounts on various dark websites where they offered stolen data for sale, including customer databases containing personal and financial information.
The conspirators also used social media accounts to direct potential buyers to dark web marketplaces to buy stolen data. Sometimes conspirators would alert the media to their hack or post images on a victim’s website claiming credit for the company’s hack.
Some of the “ShinyHunters” hack victims were located in the US’s Western District of the capital Washington, but others were located around the world.
The victims range from technology companies to an international stock exchange firm, from a clothing company to a nutrition and fitness company. The stolen data included millions of customer records.
“In addition to the conspiracy accounts, the wire fraud accounts relate to particular malicious emails directed to Washington State entities and other transmissions involving Washington State.” said the press release.
The three accounts of identity theft are related to using other people’s login credentials to access the victim company’s data.
In addition to Raoult, the indictment charges 23-year-old GabrielKimiaie-Asadi Bildstein, aka “Kuroi” and “Gnostic Players,” from Tarbes, France, and 22-year-old Abdel-Hakim El Ahmadi, aka “Zac” and “Jordan Keso”, from Lyon, France.
The charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse carry a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. The charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carry a maximum sentence of 27 years in prison.
The Attorney’s Office explains that Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison which follows any other prison sentence imposed in the case.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
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