Video evidence shows that Kivimäki spent time in, among other things, the popular holiday destination Saint-Tropez.
Suspect of Vastaamo data breach Alexander Kivimäki, 26, had lived a mobile life in different parts of Europe before he was caught. Kivimäki said during the interrogations that he had stayed in London, Kiev, the United Arab Emirates, Barcelona and France, where he was caught.
Based on the video found in the preliminary police investigation, Kivimäki had lived a life of luxury in Saint-Tropez, southern France. According to the police, Kivimäki had also shared pictures of Bentley cars and an Evian water bottle on the Ylilauta forum.
Kivimäki could not remember most of the addresses where he had stayed. Sometimes he couldn’t even remember his own phone number because he had changed it so often.
– I have moved from one place to another, said Kivimäki during the interrogation.
French authorities caught Kivimäki in February from an Airbnb apartment he was renting in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Kivimäki had lived in different places, including hotels.
Desk drawer company
A picture of Bentley cars, which according to the police, Kivimäki had distributed on Ylilauda. Police preliminary investigation material
Kivimäki also had a more permanent apartment in London, but according to his acquaintance, the man suspected of the Vastaamo data breach left there when the corona restrictions became too strict. According to Kivimäki’s acquaintance, there were no restrictions in the United Arab Emirates.
According to Kivimäki, he went to the United Arab Emirates to obtain financing for Scanif’s operations. According to Kivimäki, the purpose of the company was to perform risk assessments for insurance companies that sell cyber insurance to companies.
– It has been observed that other companies have been successful with similar products, said Kivimäki.
The company had no income and its structure remained unclear during the interrogations. According to Kivimäki, the founder of the company was “a lawyer based in Delaware who founds companies”.
The company’s registrant is marked as A Registered Agent Inc. Delaware is a popular place to register desk-box companies because there very little information is requested and published about the company’s registrant.
The police found a database dump, or data, used to extort Vastaamo on a server rented by Scanif. The server rent was paid with Kivimäki’s credit card.
Kivimäki says he was surprised by the discovery.
A stack of money and a Chinese man
During the interrogation, Kivimäki was asked about his income. The police have withheld Kivimäki’s answer, as well as the information about how he has financed his living.
Kivimäki said in the interrogations that anyone involved in Scanif could earn ten tons a month working day jobs.
Kivimäki said that he owns cryptocurrencies. He said he started investing early maybe in 2010 and gets 99 percent of his cash from cryptocurrencies.
In the interrogations, he could not tell the number of cryptocurrencies he owned or the course development. He said that he uses a service provided by a Chinese man for crypto transactions.
The mysterious Chinese man had also paid Kivimäki’s bills on his behalf. Kivimäki did not find the arrangement strange at all.
– If I have cryptocurrency and I have bills that need to be paid, I think the simplest thing is to give them to someone to pay. Like having to explain tax matters and other things related to cryptocurrencies.
He said that he keeps the cash in an original way.
– Usually in a pile, sometimes it’s such an uneven pile. Not because I would carry a safe with me, that would be challenging, said Kivimäki.
The police tracked down Kivimäki based on the IP address he used. The counter’s server had been accessed with the same IP address that had been used by Kivimäki at the time of the creation. Kivimäki denies that he was the perpetrator of the crime.
Reception desk
Psychotherapy center Vastaamo’s patient data ended up in the hands of a hacker in November 2018.
In September-October 2020, money was successfully extorted from the victims. About 33,000 people’s information was leaked to the dark Tor network.
Aleksanteri Kivimäki is suspected of data breach and extortion. He was wanted and arrested in absentia on suspicion of crimes in October 2022. In February 2023, he was captured in France.
At first, the police had difficulty finding all the victims of data breach and extortion, but in August 2023, the police announced that they had succeeded in doing so thanks to an international request for legal assistance.
The prosecutor filed charges against Kivimäki in October 2023. The prosecutor demands a seven-year prison sentence for Kivimäki for aggravated data breach, attempted aggravated blackmail, 9,598 aggravated dissemination of information infringing private life, 21,316 aggravated blackmail attempt and 20 aggravated blackmail.
There are a total of 21,459 litigants, i.e. victims of acts according to the indictment, in the trial.
In April, Vastaamo’s CEO Ville Tapio was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for a data protection crime.
Iltalehti exceptionally publishes the name of the accused before the district court’s decision based on the social significance of the Vastaamo data breach and the suspect’s serious criminal background.