Albert Gonzalez, the cracker Miami, involved in what is considered to be the largest case of identity theft and credit card fraud in the United States, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Boston, USA court.
The sentence issued yesterday comes to put an end to the two cases that were running in the courts of New York and Massachusetts, against the 28-year-old computer technician, also known as «soupnazi». The decision in the New Jersey lawsuit remains to be seen, whose sentence is expected today.
The decision falls short of the 25 years requested by the prosecution, but according to the statements of the Boston court judge, cited by the international press, despite this being «the biggest and most expensive example of a case of hacking in the history of the United States «, the decision weighed not only the costs for the companies involved, but also Gonzalez’s regret.
In previously signed confessions, Soupnazi had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges to break into the computer systems of some of the country’s largest financial and retail groups, computer fraud, identity and data theft of tens of millions of customer ATM cards. In one of the agreements, he handed over more than 1 million dollars that he had buried in his parents’ yard, which, according to the magistrate, was also taken into account.
Among the various processes in which it is involved, the hacker is accused of having entered the electronic payment systems of some of the largest retailers in the United States, stealing data from more than 130 million cards and targeting about 250 institutions.
