After extradition from Morocco and a three-year prison sentence in January 2024 in the United States, hacker Sébastien Raoult returned to France. Risking 116 years in prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, he pleaded guilty, which allowed him to benefit from reduced sentences. The 22-year-old hacker will, however, have to repay five million dollars to the victim firms, including Microsoft. On Sunday, he spoke to the newspaper Le Parisien.
Although he claims to have matured from this experience, Sébastien Raoult still remains in conflict with the law. Upon his arrival in France in December 2024, he was indicted for breaching an automated data processing system, based on an investigation by the cybercrime brigade (BL2C). In this sense, the prosecution accuses him of “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 to fraudulently take control of it “.
However, the young man says he is “happy to find [sa] family”. Arrested in Morocco in 2022 at the request of the FBI, Sébastien Raoult spent eight months in prison in the kingdom, before his extradition took effect.
“The American judge clearly understood that[il] was not the bad hacker as initially presented,” explains his lawyer, Me Philippe Ohayon, quoted by AFP. His client claims to have hacked “out of recklessness rather than a desire to cause harm”.
“I was young at the time of the events, stupid and stupid. It allowed me to mature and grow. I’ve seen people I don’t want to become,” he said.
Morocco
