The Moscow City Court began consideration of the case on the merits against the founder of one of the leading international companies in the field of cybersecurity Group-IB Ilya Sachkov, who is accused of treason.

The case is being considered behind closed doors. Neither journalists nor Ilya Sachkov’s relatives are allowed into the courtroom. The materials of the case are classified.

As the defendant’s lawyers Ruslan Koblev and Sergey Afanasyev told Business FM, after the prosecutor Milana Digaeva announced the indictment, the defendant said that he did not admit guilt. “Our client did not admit his guilt and expressed his attitude to the charges,” Koblev said.

Earlier, the court refused to change the measure of restraint to the defendant to house arrest and extended the term of detention for another six months, until December 14.

According to the FSB, Ilya Sachkov passed on to foreign special services some information constituting a state secret. The founder of Group-IB himself does not admit his guilt. Moreover, in May last year, in an interview with Forbes, he said that he did not understand the essence of the charges against him. At that time, the entrepreneur had been in jail for more than eight months. At the same time, he said that the criminal case against him was initiated in favor of certain groups, which were “greatly hindered” by his professional activities.

“These are people who have been greatly hindered by my professional activity – the fight against cybercrime. They say that immediately after my arrest, a big party took place in Moscow City, where the hacker community gathered to celebrate my arrest, “said Ilya Sachkov in an interview with Forbes.

“Hospital, prison, disappearance”

The entrepreneur was arrested at the end of September 2021 on suspicion of treason. Under Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

In mid-June, the newspaper “Kommersant” wrote that the FSB was helped to “expose” Sachkov by the former head of the 2nd Directorate of the FSB Information Security Center, Sergei Mikhailov, who himself is serving a sentence for treason and during the trial of which Ilya Sachkov acted as a witness for the prosecution.

The version of the connection between the case of Sachkov and the case of the ex-head of the operational management department of the FSB CIB Mikhailov was voiced by the media almost immediately after the arrest of the entrepreneur. In 2016, Sachkov was a witness in the case against Mikhailov, who was accused of transferring data to the FBI about the founder of Chronopay, Pavel Vrublevsky.

In 2019, Mikhailov was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Mikhailov’s lawyer argued that Sachkov allegedly gave false testimony in the case, which allowed the investigation to conclude that Mikhailov was involved in treason.

Ilya Sachkov himself insists on this version of the connection between his case and the Mikhailov case in a statement that was published on his telegram channel. Sachkov’s message dated June 16 states that he ended up in the pre-trial detention center “on the slander” of Sergei Mikhailov.

“This raises the question of the competence of the current authorities of the CIB, looking for enemies where there are none,” Sachkov said.

The businessman’s Telegram channel also published fragments of his video message, which was recorded a few months before his arrest. The existence of this video message, which Sachkov recorded and sent to his loved ones, was reported by the media in December 2021.

In the video, the entrepreneur admitted that he could be detained or killed.

“As the saying goes, if you see this video, it means that something has happened to me or is happening. A hospital, a prison, a disappearance, something that is extraordinary, but to which we are probably already accustomed,” the video message begins.

At the same time, Ilya Sachkov did not try to escape or leave the country, despite the fact that he knew about the actions being prepared against him long before his arrest.

Self-surveillance and “other signs,” as Sachkov told Forbes, he noticed since 2014.

On June 28, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow arrested in absentia another employee of the company, Ilya Sachkov, who had previously been detained in Kazakhstan at the request of the United States.

Nikita Kislitsyn, Head of the Department for the Development of Solutions for Complex Counteraction to Complex Cyberattacks at F.A.C.C.T. (formerly Group-IB), was wanted in Russia in the case of unauthorized access to computer information protected by law.

As explained in the company F.A.C.C.T., the claims of the American authorities, according to the statement, are connected “with the case of more than 10 years ago, when Nikita worked as a journalist and independent researcher.”

What does Group-IB do?

Group-IB is one of the leading Russian companies in the field of computer security. The company fights cyberattacks and online fraud and investigates high-tech crimes.

The company was established in 2003 by Sachkov and Volkov (the latter holds the position of technical director), they also own a controlling stake.

At the time of Sachkov’s arrest, Group-IB’s website stated that she was cooperating with Russian special services and law enforcement agencies, Interpol, Europol and the OSCE. Group-IB offices are located in Moscow, Innopolis (a science city in Tatarstan), Singapore, Amsterdam and Dubai. Since November 2018, Group-IB has been headquartered in Singapore.

Sachkov was a member of the expert committees of the State Duma, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Council of Europe and the OSCE dealing with the fight against cybercrime. The company collaborated with Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Megafon and Rostec.

Group-IB specialists also helped to uncover cyber fraud in Moscow and Russian regions, among other things, prevented attacks on the servers of Rosgeology, RIA Novosti writes. The company also participated in Interpol’s special operations to catch cybercriminals from Morocco, who attacked French telecommunications companies and banks, and from Nigeria, who hacked corporate mail for years.

In 2019, Group-IB participated in the verification of the voting results on the show “Voice.Children”, and then its specialists confirmed the conclusions about the use of cheating votes for Mikella Abramov.

In 2022, Group-IB decided to separate its Russian assets from its international business. Group-IB Global Private (headquartered in Singapore) continues to manage Cyber Threat Research Centers in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The Russian structure received a new brand – F.A.C.C.T. (Fight Against Cybercrime Technologies). The main shareholder of the new Russian structure was Ilya Sachkov, he owns 37.5% of the company.