The 33-year-old Mikhail Vasiliev is currently in Canadian custody awaiting extradition to the United States. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Russian-Canadian national Mikhail Vasiliev was arrested in Canada on Wednesday over his alleged participation in the LockBit ransomware campaign, which has claimed at least 1,000 victims in the United States.
Thirty-three-year-old Vasiliev is charged with “conspiracy to intentionally damage protected computers and to transmit ransom demands” and, if convicted, faces a maximum of five years in prison. Vasiliev is currently in Canadian custody awaiting extradition to the United States.
The criminal complaint describes two separate police raids of his Ontario home — first in August 2022 and then again the following October. During the first search,…