Extradited Alleged ShineyHunters Hacker Pleads Not Guilty in US Court

Cyber Crime

Extradited Alleged ShinyHunters Hacker Pleads Not Guilty in US Court

The alleged member of the ShinyHunters group, Sebastian Raoult, is a French citizen who was arrested in Morocco in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. this week.

byHabiba Rashid

January 28, 2023

2 minute read

The ShinyHunters group is known for some of the largest data breaches in 2021-2022, in which the personal data of hundreds of millions of users was leaked on the now-seized Raidforums.

In July 2022, HackRead.com reported on Sebastian Raoult, an alleged member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, who was arrested at Rabat International Airport in Morocco at the request of the United States.

This week, the 21-year-old French citizen from Epinal City was extradited to the U.S. and charged with nine counts, including conspiracy, computer intrusion, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Raoult pleaded not guilty to the cybercrimes on Friday in Seattle federal court. The presiding Magistrate Judge, Michelle Peterson, ordered him to be detained as a flight risk until a hearing on the 3rd of April 2023.

According to the indictment announced by U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, Sebastien Raoult, also known as Sezyo Kaizen, was a member of a hacking group that called itself ShinyHunters. They are known for targeting high-profile companies, stealing their databases, and selling them on the dark web as well as clearnet.

Over the years, HackRead.com has extensively reported on the activities of the ShinyHunters group. The group has claimed responsibility for several high-profile data breaches. These include companies in the United States, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many more.

It is worth noting that ShinyHunters was mainly active on the now-seized Raidforums. Here is a list of some of the data breaches claimed by ShinyHunters and reported by Hackread.com:

123RF – 8.3M accounts leaked
Mashable – 5.22GB worth of data
Minted – 5 million accounts leaked
Dunzo – 11GB worth of data leaked
AT&T Inc. – 70 million accounts sold
ProctorU – 444,267 accounts leaked
WedMeGood – 41.5 GB worth of data
Dave.com – 7 million accounts leaked
Bhinneka – 1 million+ accounts leaked
WattPad – 271 million accounts leaked
Tokopedia – 91 million accounts leaked
Big Basket – 20 million accounts leaked
Couchsurfing – 17 million accounts leaked
Animal Jam – Tens of millions of users’ data, especially children.

In addition to Raoult, two other French nationals have been indicted for their involvement with the ShinyHunters hacking group. Gabriel Bildstein, 23, and Abdel-Hakim El-Ahmadi, 22, were arrested along with Raoult.

According to a report from Moroccan media, the young man’s father, Paul Raoult, denounced the Moroccan court, saying his son was “betrayed by France.” “He was sold to the Americans. What is France waiting for to regain control of this file?” he said.

Raoult’s lawyer, Philippe Ohayon, also denounced the U.S. extradition request, claiming that the case fell under French jurisdiction since the alleged acts were committed in France by a French national(s).

Due to the U.S. extradition request being granted, Raoult now stands to face a harsh sentence that could reach up to 100 years of incarceration under the American penal code.