Overview

• Daniil Kasatkin was arrested on June 21 at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport at the request of U.S. authorities seeking his handover.
• He faces charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud for allegedly negotiating ransom payments for a syndicate behind some 900 corporate and federal system breaches.
• U.S. prosecutors say the unnamed gang, likely the successor to Conti, targeted hundreds of organizations from 2020 to 2022.
• Kasatkin’s lawyer, Frédéric Bélot, contends that his client only bought a second-hand computer and lacked the skills to operate it, arguing the device was compromised by others.
• Kasatkin, who played briefly at Penn State and appeared in 172 games with MBA-MAI in Russia, remains in French custody as extradition proceedings under bilateral treaties proceed.