Ransomware suspicion: French police arrest Russian basketball player

Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin has been arrested in France at the request of the United States. The US authorities accuse him of involvement in a ransomware gang. Kasatkin, who currently plays for the Moscow club MBA and was briefly active in US college basketball for Penn State in the 2018-19 season, is facing extradition to the United States, according to the AFP news agency.

The arrest was already made on June 21, but only became known now after a hearing in Paris. Kasatkin was arrested immediately after his arrival in France at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. According to AFP, the athlete had traveled to the French capital with his fiancée, whom he had just proposed to.

The United States accuses Kasatkin of being part of a ransomware gang that attacked around 900 companies, including two US federal institutions, between 2020 and 2022. No details of the damage caused were provided. The US judiciary accuses the basketball player of having negotiated the ransom payments as part of this criminal network. A US arrest warrant has been issued against him for "conspiracy to commit computer fraud" and "conspiracy to commit computer fraud", as reported by the French daily newspaper Le Monde.

The 26-year-old Kasatkin, who has been in extradition custody since June 23, denies all charges. His lawyer Frederic Belot declared that his client is innocent and requested that Kasatkin be released. "He bought a second-hand computer. He did absolutely nothing. He is blindsided," Bélot told journalists, including AFP, according to Le Monde. "He has no idea about computers and can not even install an application. The computer was either hacked or the hacker sold it to him so that he could operate under the guise of another person." Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that the Russian Foreign Ministry was closely monitoring Kasatkin's situation.

(akn)