BARATOV FRIENDS

More details about the 22 year old Ancaster man arrested in connection with the massive Yahoo hack. Despite his lavish lifestyle friends and neighbours of Karim Baratov say he was a quiet guy who isolated himself.

Stefan Samotulka considers himself a friend of Karim Baratov, meeting him 3 years ago at a local car show. He said cars were Baratov’s passion and described him as a quite-humble guy who always seemed willing to offer investment advice to his friends looking for an opportunity.

When asked what he thought Baratov did for a living, Samotulka says, “I thought he was just a stock investor and he just flipped cars “[because] he always had a new car every couple months.”

Baratov was arrested Wednesday and is facing extradition. Samotulka says he’s still in shock over the allegations his friend was involved in the cyber-hacking of at least 500 million Yahoo accounts and if convicted will spend multiple years in jail.