The Russian government has arrested Ilya Sachkov, the founder and chief executive of top Russian cybersecurity company Group IB, on suspicion of state treason.
According to the Lefortovo court in Moscow, Sachkov should be held in custody for at least 2 months, until November.
Following the arrest, the Russian authorities started searching the Moscow offices of Group IB, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the detention of their chief executive.
Group IB is one of Russia's most prominent cyber security firms, with its primary business focusing on investigating of high-profiled tech crimes and online fraud. The company's clients include banks, energy companies, telecommunications companies from parts of the world, as well as the Interpol.
Initially, it was not made clear what was the allegations against him, but an unnamed source said that the Group-IB co-founder pleaded not guilty to “the transfer of classified data to foreign intelligence.”
It was later reported that the charges against Sachkov could be linked to the case against former FSB Colonel Sergey Mikhailov, who was convicted of treason and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2019.
Group-IB, founded in 2003, specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks.
Sachkov founded in when he was only 17-years-old.
Three years later, Sachkov received an "innovative breakthrough" award from President Vladimir Putin "for developments in the field of identifying and preventing cyberthreats", according to the Kremlin’s website.
In 2016, Sachkov was included on Forbes' "30 under-30" list of tech entrepreneurs.
In addition to Moscow, Group-IB also has offices in Amsterdam, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, according to its website.
"Top management and legal services are working to clarify the situation," Group-IB said in a statement, following the arrest of its boss. "Group-IB's team is confident in the innocence of the company's CEO and his business integrity," the company said in a post on its website.
In Russia, a state treason is punishable by up to 20 years in jail. However, since they are classified cases, only a small number of cases were made public.
In the past, in Russia, a number of Russian scientists, soldiers and officials had been charged with treason after being accused of passing sensitive material to foreign countries.
In another story, a Russian hacker who was sentenced in June 2020 to nine years in a U.S. jail for cyber crimes, was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after being deported by the U.S..
Aleksey Burkov was arrested in the U.S. after he was found operating two websites.
The first was involved in stealing and selling credit card data, much of which belonged to U.S. citizens, and the other was an internet forum where members could advertise stolen goods and offer criminal services, including money laundering and hacking.
Burkov is charged for the facilitation of payment card fraud, computer hacking, and other crimes, as explained by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. embassy in Moscow did not immediately comment on the report that Burkov had been deported.
But Durkov's case is rare, as Russia and the U.S. do not have an extradition treaty.
Burkov was first arrested in Israel in December 2015, and extradited to the U.S. in November 2019, before pleaded guilty in January 2020.
Burkov's family had been hoping Israel would free him as part of a potential prisoner swap involving a U.S.-Israeli woman, Naama Issachar, jailed in October 2019 in Russia for drug offenses.