Daniil Kasatkin has been accused of being a member of a ransomware gang
Daniil Kasatkin © PBK-MBA
Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin has been detained in France at the request of the US on suspicion of being a member of a hacker group, AFP reported on Wednesday evening.
Kasatkin, a point guard playing for Russia’s national team, was detained on June 21 at Charles de Gaulle Airport after arriving in France with his fiancée, AFP said.
At a hearing on Wednesday, a judge ruled to keep him in custody pending extradition.
The US alleges that Kasatkin, who had studied in the country, had negotiated ransom payments on behalf of a hacker gang that targeted around 900 companies and two federal institutions between 2020 and 2022.
The athlete denies any wrongdoing, his lawyer Frederic Belot told reporters, claiming that Kasatkin has “poor computer skills” and had bought a used computer that was “either hacked or a hacker sold it to him using another person’s name.”
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Days after his arrest, Moscow-based MBA announced that Kasatkin had left. He had played 172 games for the team and won two bronze medals in the Russian national championship.
There have been several high-profile cases of arrests of Russian-linked figures in recent years. In August 2024, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was detained in France on charges of failing to stop criminals from using his platform for illicit activities. He was eventually released on bail of €5 million ($5.46 million). Durov later claimed that French authorities had tried to pressure him to enact more censorship on Telegram.