Finnish prosecutors have charged a second individual in the high-profile hacking and extortion case targeting the Vastaamo psychotherapy center. US national Daniel Lee Newhard, 28, has been charged with aiding and abetting attempted aggravated extortion.
The Finnish Prosecution Service said Newhard, who denies the charge, is suspected of assisting in the attempted extortion of Vastaamo but not its clients. Authorities did not confirm whether he is currently in custody.
The case follows the conviction of Finnish hacker Aleksanteri Kivimäki, the primary suspect in the attack, who was found guilty earlier this year of attempting to extort more than 20,000 victims. Kivimäki was released from custody last week pending appeal of his six-year prison sentence.
Court documents state that Newhard was linked to a server operated by Kivimäki and used in the Vastaamo hack. Investigators allege server logs contained an IP address traced to Newhard’s internet connection in Estonia and his home address. A cached Estonian business profile lists a Daniel Lee Newhard with a birthdate of March 23, 1997, which matches the details of the accused.
While Newhard was also suspected of involvement in disseminating stolen client data online, prosecutors said they dropped those charges due to the disproportionate cost of prosecution relative to the expected sanctions.
The Vastaamo breach, which occurred in 2018 but came to light in 2020, is considered one of Europe’s largest criminal data privacy violations. Kivimäki allegedly attempted to extort both the company and individual patients, including children and trauma survivors, by threatening to release their therapy records unless they paid.
Over 24,000 people reported receiving extortion messages, marking a historic number of victims in a single criminal case in Finland.