The 22-year-old Frenchman was sentenced in January 2024 in the United States to three years’ imprisonment, after pleading guilty to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was released from prison after reduced sentences.
The 22-year-old French hacker Sébastien Raoult returned to French soil last December, after spending two and a half years in prison in Morocco, then in the United States. He was found guilty of computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. This Sunday, January 5, he confides in Le Parisien about these years of legal battle.
“I’m happy to be back with my family,” he breathes, saying he’s “relieved.”
“In the United States, I had a sword of Damocles over my head, I risked 116 years in prison,” he remembers.
Computer fraud and identity theft
While he risked spending his entire life behind bars, Sébastien Raoult was sentenced in January 2024 in the United States to three years in prison, after pleading guilty to computer fraud and identity theft. aggravated identity. He must also reimburse five million dollars for losses caused to the victim firms.
The young hacker was arrested in Rabat, Morocco, after a request from the American FBI. He first spent eight months in Moroccan jails, before being extradited across the Atlantic.
After two and a half years in prison, the young Frenchman was released via reduced sentence. “The American judge clearly understood that Sébastien Raoult was not the evil hacker as initially presented,” said his lawyer, Philippe Ohayon, to Agence France-Press last December.
“No bad intentions”
Sébastien Raoult claims to have hacked out of recklessness rather than out of a desire to cause harm.
“I have no bad intentions, I am capable of being a good person,” he maintains.
“I was young at the time of the events, stupid and stupid. This allowed me to mature and grow,” assures the young Vosges native.
“I’ve seen people I don’t want to become.”
His stay in prison was a period that Sébastien Raoult will never forget even if he assures that his nationality protected him from certain rivalries between inmates and allowed him to “integrate quickly”.
“I have never been afraid of violence,” he maintains. “Even if American police officers play tough, I have always known how to surround myself well.”
Despite everything, he admits to having been confronted with personalities with a heavy past. “I’ve seen people I don’t want to become,” he says, determined not to return behind bars.
Indicted in another case
However, Sébastien Raoult is not yet safe. In December, upon his arrival at Roissy airport, the young hacker was arrested and indicted for attacks on an automated data processing system.
The investigations carried out by the brigade for the fight against cybercrime (BL2C) concern “the sale in 2021-2022 of software making it possible to scan the vulnerabilities of mail servers (SMTP) of the company Amazon Web Service (AWS) then fraudulently take control of it,” according to the public prosecutor.
Today, Sébastien Raoult is aware of the concern he made known to his loved ones during his years in prison. “They suffered with me, they were able to imagine the worst and they fought a lot for me,” concedes the young man.
