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Edward Dubrovsky has spent years telling companies how to handle criminals who steal their data and demand payment. Federal prosecutors now accuse the 54-year-old Canadian ransomware negotiator of conspiring to commit cyber extortion himself, and anonymous sources say his case is connected to ShinyHunters, the crew that defaced the FBI’s jobs site last month and demanded the bureau retract a May warning about the hacking group.

According to the federal docket in Philadelphia, which misspells his last name as “Dobrovsky,” Dubrovsky was arrested in Pennsylvania on Thursday. The complaint, which was filed in the Eastern District of Texas and remains under seal, charges him with conspiracy to threaten to impair the confidentiality of information with the intent to extort money, along with Hobbs Act extortion and conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion. A magistrate judge in Philadelphia ordered him held and sent him to Texas for a detention hearing. Dubrovsky hasn’t been convicted or entered a plea, and Politico reported that he could not be reached for comment.

The public filings say nothing about ShinyHunters or the FBI, and FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t name the suspect when he announced a ShinyHunters-related arrest on Friday. “This is the latest arrest this FBI has made in a matter of days involving this network, as we work non-stop to dismantle the group, pursue new leads and evidence, and act quickly,” Patel wrote on X.

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