“At the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia, the competent authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan have extradited Nikita Kislitsin to face criminal charges under Article 272, Section 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal access to computer information protected by law), and Article 163, Paragraphs ‘a’, ‘g’, Section 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extortion),” the Russian Prosecutor’s Office announced.
According to the investigation, in 2022, Kislitsyn managed to gain access to server data of an organization and made copies of the information. Subsequently, he, along with several other hackers, demanded a payment of the equivalent of 550,000 rubles in cryptocurrency to avoid making the information public.
Kislitsyn was initially detained in Kazakhstan in response to a request from the United States on June 22, 2023. The FBI accused him of gaining unauthorized access to user data on platforms such as LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring back in 2012. However, Kislitsyn began cooperating with the FBI, providing valuable information and testifying against other hackers who may have links to Russian intelligence services, resulting in the case not going to trial.
FACCT is a software developer specializing in cybersecurity and is the successor to Group-IB. Recently, the founder of Group-IB, Ilya Sachkov, was convicted of treason.
In a separate case, Anatoly Legkodymov, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, who was accused of money laundering through cryptocurrencies, has requested release from custody to spend time with his family. Legkodymov had pleaded guilty to money laundering through crypto assets, agreeing to forfeit $23 million as part of a plea deal reached in early December.