Ilya Sachkov, accused of treason, named his “customers”

The founder of the Group-IB company Ilya Sachkov, who is in pretrial detention on charges of treason, named two FSB employees whom he considers the initiators of his persecution. Sachkov stated that he was arrested on the conspiracy of one of the former heads of the Information Security Center of the FSB, Sergei Mykhaylov, with the assistance of the current head of the Center, Oleg Kashentsov.

Sachkov’s statement appeared in his Telegram channel. There is also a video that Sachkov took a few months before his arrest in case “something happens” to him. In it, he says that the cyber security services of the FSB have merged with international crime and pursue the private financial interests of the leadership.

In addition, on Thursday, the anonymous Telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” published a statement by Ilya Sachkov in the name of the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin. It is not possible to confirm the authenticity of the document. In the statement, Sachkov accuses Sergei Mikhailov of collusion based on personal revenge, and names Kashentsov as the direct executor of the “provocation” against him.

According to Sachkov, Kashentsov and Mykhailov “worked in tandem.” In 2019, Sergei Mikhailov was sentenced to 22 years in prison on charges of treason. According to the investigation, he passed on information about cybercriminals to Western intelligence services. Ilya Sachkov was one of the prosecution witnesses at his trial. “Unable to take revenge on the employees of the Ukrainian Security Service who revealed him, Mykhailov chose me as his victim,” he writes. He also reports that he repeatedly received threats from Kashentsov. According to Sachkov, threats were also sent to Group-IB clients, from whom Kashentsov demanded the termination of contracts with the company.

Sachkov called the accusations against himself false and baseless.

• Ilya Sachkov was arrested at the end of September 2021. The details of his case are classified. Sachkov does not recognize the guilt of treason, which, according to the investigation, caused reputational and national damage to the interests of Russia, and cooperation with foreign intelligence.
• Group-IB (now FACTT) is one of the leading Russian companies in the field of computer security. Among its clients are the largest Russian banks, including Sberbank, “Tinkoff” and Alfa-Bank, and the state corporation “Rostec”, the group advises the Russian special services and Interpol. The group participated in conducting international investigations in the field of cybercrime.