Authorities in Europe have detained five people, including a former Russian skilled basketball player, in reference to crime syndicates answerable for ransomware attacks.
Until recently, certainly one of the suspects, Daniil Kasatkin, played for MBA Moscow, a basketball team that’s a part of the VTB United League, which incorporates teams from Russia and other Eastern European countries. Kasatkin also briefly played for Penn State University in the course of the 2018–2019 season. He has denied the costs.
Unrelated ransomware attacks
The AFP and Le Monde on Wednesday reported that Kasatkin was arrested and detained on June 21 in France on the request of US authorities. The arrest occurred because the basketball player was on the de Gaulle airport while traveling together with his fiancée, whom he had just proposed to. The 26-year-old has been under extradition arrest since June 23, Wednesday’s news report said.
US prosecutors accuse Kasatkin of getting negotiated ransom payments with organizations that had been hacked by an unnamed ransomware syndicate answerable for 900 different breaches. A US arrest warrant said he is needed for “conspiracy to commit computer fraud” and “computer fraud conspiracy.”
An attorney for Kasatkin said his client is innocent of all charges.
“He bought a second-hand computer,” the attorney told reporters. The attorney continued:
He did absolutely nothing. He’s stunned. He’s useless with computers and might’t even install an application. He didn’t touch anything on the pc. It was either hacked, or the hacker sold it to him to act under the duvet of one other person.
US authorities are currently within the technique of extraditing Kasatkin.