{ "id": "8506562c-3be9-43a4-ae62-76ecee16f734", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:22:19.104119Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:11:21.202536Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "f4b38430acff94eb619d8f3284e5466b836b7cfa", "title": "French cybercriminal pleads guilty to fraud and aggravated identity theft for hacking private information", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 38369, "plain_text": "French cybercriminal pleads guilty to fraud and aggravated\r\nidentity theft for hacking private information\r\nPublished: 2023-09-27 · Archived: 2026-04-02 11:57:37 UTC\r\nSeattle – A 22-year-old French citizen from Epinal, France, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and\r\naggravated identity theft in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M.\r\nGorman. Sebastien Raoult, aka Sezyo Kaizen, was arrested last year in Morocco and was extradited to the U.S. in\r\nJanuary 2023. Raoult and two co-conspirators were indicted by a grand jury sitting in the Western District of\r\nWashington in June 2021. \r\n“People often think their actions from behind a screen won’t have consequences for them. Raoult and his co-conspirators used deceptive tactics to trick people into sharing personal login information and breached\r\nconfidential data from numerous companies,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. “The FBI Seattle\r\nCyber Task Force and our office’s cyber unit work tirelessly to ensure victims of fraud and hacking like this get\r\njustice.”\r\nAccording to the plea agreement, Raoult and his co-conspirators hacked into protected computers of corporate\r\nentities for the theft of confidential information and customer records, including personally identifiable\r\ninformation and financial information. They hacked numerous companies, including companies in Washington\r\nState, elsewhere in the United States, and around the world. After Raoult and his co-conspirators hacked\r\ncompanies, a user going by the name ShinyHunters posted hacked data from many of those companies for sale on\r\ndark web forums, including RaidForums, EmpireMarket, and Exploit. Between April 2020 and July 2021,\r\nShinyHunters posted sales of hacked data from more than 60 companies. Sometimes ShinyHunters threatened to\r\nleak or sell stolen sensitive files if the victim did not pay a ransom.\r\nAccording to the records filed in the case, Raoult helped create websites that pretended to be login pages\r\nbelonging to legitimate businesses. The conspirators sent phishing emails to company employees that were\r\ndesigned to look like they came from legitimate businesses and contained links to those login pages. Victims\r\nprovided their account sign-on credentials on those fake login pages, and the conspirators obtained the victims’\r\ncredentials. Raoult and his co-conspirators used the login information to breach victims’ accounts, steal the data\r\nstored there, and search the stolen data for credentials to access additional data on companies’ networks and third-party service providers, such as cloud storage services. In total, the conspirators stole hundreds of millions of\r\ncustomer records and caused loss to victim companies that is estimated to exceed $6 million.\r\nThe conspiracy to commit wire fraud is punishable by a maximum of 27 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft\r\nis punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year prison term to follow any other prison sentence imposed in the\r\ncase.\r\nThe case is being investigated by the FBI Seattle Cyber Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant\r\nUnited States Attorney Miriam R. Hinman. DOJ’s Office of International Affairs is providing substantial\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/french-cybercriminal-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft-hacking-private\r\nPage 1 of 2\n\nassistance. The Department of Justice also appreciates the significant cooperation and assistance provided by\r\nMoroccan and French authorities.\r\nSource: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/french-cybercriminal-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft-hacking-private\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/french-cybercriminal-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft-hacking-private\r\nPage 2 of 2", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "ETDA" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/french-cybercriminal-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft-hacking-private" ], "report_names": [ "french-cybercriminal-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft-hacking-private" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "c071c8cd-f854-4bad-b28f-0c59346ec348", "created_at": "2023-11-08T02:00:07.132524Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:03.422366Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "ShinyHunters", "aliases": [], "source_name": "MISPGALAXY:ShinyHunters", "tools": [], "source_id": "MISPGALAXY", "reports": null }, { "id": "6f7f2ed5-f30d-4a99-ab2d-f596c1d413b2", "created_at": "2025-10-24T02:04:50.086223Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:03.770068Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "GOLD CRYSTAL", "aliases": [ "Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters", "ShinyCorp", "ShinyHunters" ], "source_name": "Secureworks:GOLD CRYSTAL", "tools": [], "source_id": "Secureworks", "reports": null }, { "id": "d8dff631-87b0-4320-8352-becff28dbcf1", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:24.565038Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:05.034516Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "ShinyHunters", "aliases": [], "source_name": "ETDA:ShinyHunters", "tools": [], "source_id": "ETDA", "reports": null } ], "ts_created_at": 1775434939, "ts_updated_at": 1775826681, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/f4b38430acff94eb619d8f3284e5466b836b7cfa.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/f4b38430acff94eb619d8f3284e5466b836b7cfa.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/f4b38430acff94eb619d8f3284e5466b836b7cfa.jpg" } }