The Moscow City Court has sentenced Ilya Sachkov, the head of a leading Russian cybersecurity company, to 14 years in prison on a high treason charge.
The court pronounced the verdict and sentence on July 26 without providing details of the case. It is not clear what exactly Sachkov was accused of as the trial was held behind closed doors, because the court said the case materials were classified.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 18 years in prison for the 37-year-old.
Sachkov is the founder of Group-IB, currently known as F.A.C.T.T., a company known for its work in tracking down hackers and fighting theft and cybercrime.
He is one of a group of prominent people, including scientists and cybersecurity officials, to be arrested in Russia on treason charges in recent years. Moscow has faced numerous allegations of being behind cyberattacks on Western countries -- which it has consistently denied.
Investigators have said Sachkov was suspected of passing classified information to a foreign country. No other details were given by officials.
Sachkov was arrested and charged after police searched his company's offices in Moscow in September 2021. He denies any wrongdoing.
Last month, a senior executive at F.A.C.C.T., Nikita Kislitsin, was arrested in Kazakhstan at the request of the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly buying personal data obtained through the 2012 hack of Formspring, a now-defunct social media site that allowed users to receive answers to questions.
In late June, the Tver district court in Moscow said it issued an arrest warrant for Kislitsin in connection with an investigation into illegally accessing computer data in Russia, adding that a legal request would be sent to Kazakhstan to extradite Kislitsin to Russia.
One of Kislitsin's acquaintances and the mastermind of the hacks of the U.S. companies, Yevgeny Nikulin, was extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic in 2018 and sentenced to more than seven years in prison. He was released earlier this year and deported back to Russia.
Group-IB, founded in 2003, has grown markedly in recent years as cybercrimes increase globally.
In addition to Moscow, the company has offices in Singapore, London, New York, and Dubai.
