French authorities arrested Russian pro basketball player Daniil Kasatkin after arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris on June 21. According to The Register, the Kasatkin is accused in the U.S. of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and computer fraud conspiracy, where he was allegedly a part of a ransomware gang between 2020 and 2022 that targeted around 900 companies and organizations, including two U.S. federal agencies. A French court decided on July 8 to keep him in detention while awaiting extradition proceedings, but the player denies all charges.
“He bought a second-hand computer. He did absolutely nothing — he is stunned,” Frédéric Bélot, Kasatkin’s lawyer, told the press. “He sucks at computers and is not even able to install an application. He didn’t touch anything in the computer: it was either hacked or the hacker sold it to him to act under the guise of another person.” Another lawyer told Russian publication Izvestia that Kasatkin is being tagged as a negotiator for the ransomware gang, but the player has an “ironclad alibi” against the accusation.
Kasatkin studied in the U.S. from 2016 to 2019, and even played for Penn State University from 2018 to 2019. He returned to Russia after that and eventually played in the MBA-MAI professional basketball team, which competes in the VTB United League and the Russian Basketball Cup. However, he left the team last July 3, more than a week after his arrest.
The Register says that ransomware negotiators are a specialized staff within a ransomware gang that talks with victims and gets them to pay up. Cybercriminals often look for targets and vulnerabilities and then use ransomware-as-a-service to exploit them. The operators of the latter usually have a negotiator, who talks with the victim and gets them to pay up, after which the original attacker receives a cut of the ransom.
Although the case against the Russian basketball player originated from the U.S., the Department of Justice hasn’t released a statement yet about his arrest. It currently has about 60 days to produce the necessary documents for France to proceed with the extradition proceedings.
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