October 5, 2022
Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a former Netwalker ransomware affiliate, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $21.5 million for his attacks on a company in Tampa and other companies.
Vachon-Desjardins, a 34-year-old Canadian, was convicted after pleading guilty to ‘Computer Fraud Conspiracy,’ ‘Computer Fraud Conspiracy,’ ‘Intentional Damage to Protected Computer,’ and ‘Transmitting a Demand in Relation to Damaging a Protected Computer.’
“The Defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a term of TWO HUNDRED FORTY (240) MONTHS,” the court ruling reads.
Vachon-Desjardins will serve a three-year supervised sentence upon his release from prison, during which time he will be prohibited from working in information technology or using computers connected to the Internet, including a smartphone, gaming device or any other electronic device.
The judge ordered a forfeiture of $21.5 million against the defendant, of which 27.65 Bitcoin already held by law enforcement will be credited.
Vachon-Desjardins’s method of working has been to carry out attacks on companies around the world, stealing data from corporate systems and ultimately encrypting devices during those attacks, and demanding ransoms of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars from victims in order to recover files and prevent the release of data.
The sources for this piece include an article in BleepingComputer
