(Ottawa) A Gatineau man has been extradited to the United States to face charges in Florida stemming from his alleged involvement in a ransomware operation.
Posted at 3:57 p.m.
Following a request from the American authorities, Sébastien Vachon-Desjardins was arrested in Gatineau in January 2021. During a search, the police seized 719 bitcoins, worth around 35 million, and 790,000 $ in Canadian currency.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) says investigators also seized more than 20 terabytes of data from Vachon-Desjardins computer and storage devices. The analysis of this data made it possible to identify 17 Canadian companies targeted by Vachon-Desjardins, indicates the RCMP.
Vachon-Desjardins pleaded guilty in an Ontario court on January 31 to charges of extortion, mischief with computer data and participation in a criminal organization. He was sentenced to a seven-year prison term.
The RCMP explains that the extradition of Vachon-Desjardins to the United States is now linked to his alleged ransomware activities directed against companies and institutions based this time in the United States.
The Canadian federal police say that their investigation began in August 2020, when they received certain information from the FBI, which asked them to help identify a suspect as part of their investigation into “NetWalker” ransomware.
Ransomware is a malicious program that encrypts a user’s personal data in order to blackmail them into extorting money.