Peter Stokes, a 19‑year‑old dual US‑Estonian citizen, was arrested in Finland in April and extradited to the United States after an Interpol Red Notice. He has been charged with computer intrusion, conspiracy and fraud, measures the U.S. Department of Justice says follow years of work by the group known as Scattered Spider.
The DoJ notes that the group has been linked to over $100m in ransom payments. This follows the guilty pleas of two young men who admitted to hacking the Transport for London system in 2024, an incident the UK National Crime Agency believes the gang carried out.
Stokes was presented in federal court in Chicago, where he was ordered to remain in custody. The complaint alleges that he and co‑conspirators demanded about $8m in cryptocurrency for a luxury jewellery retailer after stealing data last year. No ransom was paid, but the company suffered roughly $2m in losses from business disruption and investigations.
Both the FBI—working from Copenhagen and Chicago—and Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation led the operation that apprehended the teen. The case underlines the international cooperation being employed to prosecute this network of youth hackers, many of whom are believed to be native English speakers from the United States and the United Kingdom.
