Russian professional basketball player arrested by French police at the request of the US for suspected ties to ransomware group



European law enforcement authorities have arrested five people, including a Russian professional basketball player, in connection with a criminal organization involved in ransomware attacks. The arrested professional basketball player is accused of negotiating the ransom demands for the ransomware, a charge he denies.

Piraterie informatique : un basketteur russe arrêté et placé en détention en France, à la demande des Etats-Unis

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/07/09/piraterie-informatique-un-basketteur-russe-arrete-et-place-en-detention-en-france-a-la-demande-des-etats-unis_6620247_3210.html



Pro basketball player and 4 youths arrested in connection to ransomware crimes - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/07/pro-basketball-player-and-4-youths-arrested-in-connection-to-ransomware-crimes/

UK Arrests Four in 'Scattered Spider' Ransom Group – Krebs on Security
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/07/uk-charges-four-in-scattered-spider-ransom-group/

According to French media Le Monde, one of the five arrested, Daniil Kasatkin, was arrested by French police at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on June 21, 2025, at the request of US authorities. Kasatkin, 26, played basketball at Pennsylvania State University in the US from 2018 to 2019 and was a member of the Russian basketball team MBA Moscow. At the time of his arrest, he was traveling in France with his fiancee, who had just proposed to him.



U.S. prosecutors suspect Kasatkin to have negotiated ransoms for a ransomware ring that attacked about 900 companies and organizations between 2020 and 2022. An arrest warrant has been issued for Kasatkin on charges of 'conspiracy to commit computer fraud,' among other charges, and procedures are underway for his extradition to the United States.



Kasatkin denies all the charges. His lawyer, Frederic Bello, said: 'He just bought a used computer and was caught up in it. He did absolutely nothing. He's stunned. He's not good with computers, he can't even install applications. He never touched a computer. It was either hacked or a hacker sold it to him to operate under someone else's name.'

Bello also argued that detention could jeopardize the athlete's career and that his weight had dropped from 95kg to 89kg while in prison, but bail was not granted. MBA Moscow, where Kasatkin had played for four years, announced his departure on July 3.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested four young people in connection with a separate ransomware attack. The arrested individuals - three men and one woman aged between 17 and 20 - are suspected of being involved in attacks against companies such as British retailers Marks & Spencer and Harrods. These attacks are believed to be the work of a hacker group known as ' Scattered Spider ', which is also believed to have been involved in attacks that took down the systems of several companies in 2023.

Of the four arrested, 19-year-old British national Talha Jubair is active under the nickname 'Earth2Star' and is believed to be the founder of the Telegram channel 'Star Fraud Chat' specializing in cybercrime. He also worked under the nicknames Amtrak and Asyntax as a core member of ' LAPSUS$, ' known for attacks on numerous large companies such as Microsoft and NVIDIA. Jubair later left LAPSUS$ after his personal information was exposed by the leader of LAPSUS$ due to a falling out with the group, but he was known as a big name in the cybercrime world, running multiple cybercrime communities.



At the time of writing, it was not clear whether the four arrested had admitted to the charges.

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