French man sentenced to 3 years in prison for role in international hacking group

SEATTLE - A French hacker was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $5 million for his role in an international hacking group.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle sentenced 22-year-old Sebastien Raoult of Epinal, France, for charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Raoult and other co-conspirators are connected to a dark web account called ‘ShinyHunters.’ They hacked computers of corporations, including companies in Washington, and stole financial information and customer records. They then sold the data on dark web forums like RaidForums, EmpireMarket and Exploit under the ‘ShinyHunters’ moniker.

Raoult created fake log-in screens and employed phishing scams to gain access to confidential information.

"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. "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."

Raoult and co-conspirators stole hundreds of millions of customer records, causing losses exceeding $6 million.

"The lengths to which Mr. Raoult and his co-conspirators went to steal personal and financial information are remarkably devious, and he played a substantial part in the scheme by creating code and phishing websites," said Richard A. Collodi of FBI Seattle. "Thanks to the diligent work of federal and international law enforcement, Mr. Raoult will be held accountable for his cyber-crimes, which caused millions of dollars of harm to companies and customers."

The 22-year-old in court said he intends to put this part of his life behind him when he is out of prison. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said he believes Raoult's 2022 arrest and subsequent jail time has "gotten through" to him.