French Student Arrested in Morocco, Wanted by FBI for Major Hacking Scheme

Sébastien Raoult, a French computer science student at the Epitech school in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, is in a serious situation. He is suspected by the FBI of belonging to a very active hacker group in the early 2000s, the "ShinyHunters" group, a reference to the Pokémon universe. According to the US authorities, they are "prolific cybercriminals". "They offered for sale on the darknet nearly 200 million stolen data after breaking into the computer systems of a dozen companies around the world," reports L’Obs. This group is accused of hacking the confidential data of American companies, which were then resold on the Darknet.

Sébastien’s arrest took place in Morocco, where he was on vacation for a few months and was supposed to take a flight to Brussels in Rabat. On June 1, he was incarcerated near Rabat. Morocco is examining the extradition request received from the United States. The latter accuse this French student from Épinal of "conspiracy to commit fraud and electronic abuse", "electronic fraud" and "serious identity theft", says France Inter.

Sébastien’s father is convinced that his son has nothing to do with this case and assures that his "identity has been stolen". "It’s not possible, my son is just a student who wants to work in computer security later. He says his identity was taken from him." For his part, Philippe Ohayon, the student’s lawyer, opposes extradition to the United States. "This case falls under the jurisdiction of the French courts, as the facts would have been committed in France by French nationals. And yet, it is the United States that is claiming this case," he defends. Sébastien faces 116 years in prison in Uncle Sam’s country.

In France, four other people were questioned as part of this case.