SEATTLE — A French citizen was sentenced in Seattle federal court on Tuesday after previously being convicted of being part of an international hacking group that stole millions of dollars from people all over the world.
Sebastien Raoult, 22, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Per court documents, Raoult and a group of others hacked into protected devices of corporate entities in Washington state and elsewhere around the world through phishing emails sent to employees.
After Raoult's group hacked these companies, the data was posted on the dark web for sale at several sites. Between April 2020 and July 2021, a user going by the name "ShinyHunters" posted hacked data from more than 60 companies.
In total, the group is believed to have stolen hundreds of millions of customer records and caused losses estimated to exceed $6 million.
“This is an extraordinarily serious offense. We’re talking about him robbing people of millions of dollars," said Judge Robert S. Lasnik at the sentencing hearing.
Raoult, aka ‘Sezyo Kaizen,’ was arrested in Morocco in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. in January 2023.
“For over two years, Mr. Raoult participated in extensive computer hacking that caused millions of dollars in losses to victim companies and unmeasurable additional losses to hundreds of millions of individuals whose data was sold to other criminals,” said Criminal Chief Sarah Vogel of the Western District of Washington. “Mr. Raoult’s motive was pure greed. He sold hacked data. He stole people’s cryptocurrency. He even sold his hacking tools so that he could profit while other hackers attacked additional victims.”
