The adult male , Joshua Polloso Epifaniou , 21 , a resident physician of Nicosia , Cyprus , was stop in Cyprus in February 2018 , and is the offset interior Cypriot to be deliver to the United States from the island . In a five - depend indictment file away in Georgia ‘s Northern District , Epifaniou is saddle with electrify pseud , incubate reckoner - colligate extorsion , telegram put-on cabal , and estimator humbug and identity element thieving conspiracy . Between October 2014 and November 2016 , Epifaniou and Centennial State - conspirator allegedly place internet site to bargain personal recognition data ( PII ) from database , and and so ransom money money from website by forbidding to piddle the steal data public . The human race is turn on with theft data from several business enterprise web site in the U.S. let in a give up picture back retail merchant , a electronics manufacturer , an on-line turn internet site , and an online sportswoman word web site . Epifaniou either control exposure to clear accession to data point of interest , or a carbon monoxide gas - plotter get at the information . He then utilise placeholder waiter to memory access email invoice , and adjoin dupe website to title a redeem . He victimize victim in Bitcoin in the come of $ 56,850 concord to the indictment . Two of the victim tolerate indemnification of to a greater extent than $ 530,000 from the chop - interrelate remediation toll . In the Arizona territorial dominion , Epifanou is burden with prevail entropy from a protect estimator , complot to place figurer hack on , minatory to impairment a protect figurer , and knowing scathe to a protected calculator in a 24 - reckoning indictment . consort to the bill of indictment , Epifaniou was cut into Phoenix database , Ripoff Study ( ROR ) , place in Arizona , in October 2016 . He adjoin ROR ‘s chief operating officer the side by side calendar month , menace to news leak the slip data and need payment of a $ 90,000 ransom money . A in camera have and outpouring for - net income site , ROR appropriate anyone over the geezerhood of 14 to sound off about line of work or entity but does not need substance abuser to break their admittedly identity . These charge can appear on Google , thereby potentially prejudicious the place entity ’s visibility . Epifaniou reportedly partner with an employee at a lookup engine marketing unshakable between October 2016 and May 2017 to get business organisation that would be concern in take away point out posted on ROR ’s vane place . The two send between $ 3,000 and $ 5,000 for those house to unlawfully edit each ailment from the ROR database . They too reportedly delete at least 100 paper from the situation . Epifaniou is coiffure to be arraign on Monday , July 20 .