US Extradition of Alleged RaidForums Admin Is Stuck in Limbo

A request to extradite a Portuguese national and alleged administrator of RaidForums to the United States to face device fraud and aggravated identity theft charges has been stuck in limbo since the U.K. High Court overturned a Home Office request earlier this month.

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The High Court of Justice on Sept. 11 stayed a request by the Home Office to extradite Diogo Santos Coelho, the alleged founder and chief administrator of the now-defunct RaidForums. The hacking forum sold card details, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, login credentials and personally identifiable information to hackers.

Coelho, a Portuguese national, was arrested by the British National Crime Agency in 2022 while he was on an inbound flight from Portugal. The arrest came at the request of U.S. law enforcement officials. The 25-year-old was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on six counts related to access device fraud and aggravated identity theft (see: Joint Law Enforcement Operation Dismantles RaidForums).

He remains in British custody pending the resolution of his extradition proceedings. Coelho is also facing competing extradition requests from Portugal issued in 2024.

Judge Thomas Linden ruled against the secretary of state for the Home Department’s request to extradite Coelho to the U.S. on the grounds that the U.K. government failed to provide all the adequate information produced by the claimant and the Portuguese authorities while considering the U.S. request.

The court also found that the Home Office committed an error of omitting key evidence needed to deliberate on Coelho’s extradition request.

“The effect of the errors which I have identified was that the minister considered and accepted a submission which was wrong in material respects in favor of the recommendation which it made,” the judge said.<./p>

The court also sided with the claimant’s defense argument that Coelho, who was diagnosed with autism during the extradition proceedings and having suicidal tendencies, faces a “high risk of deterioration in his mental health” if imprisoned in the United States.

Because Coelho was also groomed as a child by adults online, who forced him to create RaidForums as a 14-year-old, the defense argued he is a victim of trafficking and modern slavery. The U.K. government should have considered the claimant’s psychological condition and violated those duties under the European Convention on Human Rights, the defense argued.

The judge also accepted the defense position that any potential extradition to the U.S. would contravene the British Extradition Act of 2003, which mandates that extraditions should not proceed if the defendant might be exposed to an unfair trial due to his or her inability to communicate with the local authorities.

It is unclear if the Home Office will appeal the High Court decision. The Home Office and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Information Security Media Group.

“My position has always been clear and has never changed: I have consented to extradition to Portugal, my home country, and I am fully prepared to face the justice system there. I have never tried to evade responsibility, only to be treated with fairness and humanity,” Coelho told the Guardian.

The U.S. indictment alleges that Coelho, who went by the monikers Omnipotent, Downloading, Shiza and Kevin Maradona, designed and administered RaidForums, which offered tiered memberships for criminals.

In the United States, Coelho also stands accused of aiding and abetting the hacker of T-Mobile to sell customer names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, drivers’ licenses and phone numbers.

As part of the 2022 joint action, dubbed Operation Tourniquet, law enforcement agencies seized three domains associated with the hacker forum: raidforums.com, rf.ws and raid.lol. Authorities also arrested two accomplices.

Dutch police in 2023 arrested and charged three RaidForums members for hacking a Dutch company (see: Breach Roundup: Hyundai, Yum! Brands, Dutch RaidForums Users).