19-Year-Old Extradited to US on Scattered Spider Charges

A 19-year-old dual U.S. and Estonian citizen has been extradited from Finland to the United States to face federal charges for his alleged role in the notorious Scattered Spider cybercrime group. Peter Stokes appeared in federal court in Chicago this week after being transferred from Finland, where he was arrested in April. He is charged with conspiracy, computer intrusion, and fraud.

The charges, detailed in a criminal complaint unsealed on June 30, accuse Stokes of participating in a May 2025 cyberattack on a luxury jewelry retailer. According to the complaint, he and other alleged conspirators used social engineering techniques, posing as employees to call the company's IT help desk and trick staff into resetting passwords and multi-factor authentication credentials. After gaining access to high-level administrator accounts, they allegedly exfiltrated company data and demanded an $8 million ransom in cryptocurrency. The company did not pay but reportedly incurred at least $2 million in losses from business disruption and incident response.

Authorities allege Stokes, who used online aliases including "Bouquet," was a member of Scattered Spider, a loosely affiliated,...