OfficeMax hacker seeks 17-25 years for theft
A Miami man who admitted in September that he stole 40 million credit and debit card records faces from 17 to 25 years in prison under an agreement to plead guilty in a second case.
Albert Gonzalez is scheduled to plead guilty Dec. 29 in federal court in Boston to charges that he stole data on 130 million credit and debit cards from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., 7-Eleven Inc., Delhaize Group's Hannaford Brothers Co. and two unidentified national retailers. Gonzalez was indicted in New Jersey, and the case was transferred this month to Boston.
Under a plea agreement filed Dec. 16, Gonzalez will not seek a term of less than 17 years and prosecutors will not ask for more than 25 years. U.S. District Judge Donald Woodlock will consider the guilty plea and sentence Gonzalez later to a term that will run concurrent with his sentence in the earlier case.
When he pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, Gonzalez admitted he led an international ring that stole credit and debit card records from U.S. retailers including Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc., TJX Cos. and BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.
Under that plea agreement, Gonzalez would serve from 15 to 25 years and forfeit more than $1.65 million. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris has set a sentencing of March 18. He pleaded guilty to charges that were filed in New York and Boston.
'Internet Addiction'
In that case, a lawyer for Gonzalez filed a sentencing memorandum saying he should get no more than 15 years in prison. Gonzalez has a "diminished mental capacity" caused by Asperger's disorder and "Internet addiction" compounded by drug and alcohol abuse, attorney Martin Weinberg wrote.
"Now that he has had time to reflect on his crimes, his mind freed of the tyranny of computers and drugs and alcohol, he understands the sense of violation that the consumers whose credit card numbers were stolen (and on some occasion used) must have felt and is truly remorseful," Weinberg wrote Dec. 18.
A defense psychiatrist, Barry Roth, examined Gonzalez and said his behavior is consistent with Asperger's, a type of autism, according to his report submitted by Weinberg.
Gonzalez has "pervasive developmental disabilities" characterized by "flawed and impaired social and cognitive skills; side-by-side with an idiot-savant-like genius for computers and information technology," Roth wrote.
Informant
After his arrest in 2003 in New Jersey in a case involving hackers known as the Shadowcrew, the U.S. Secret Service began using him as a confidential informant, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston said in a 2008 statement after indicting him.
"Secret Service recruited him to work with them tracking down Internet criminals," Roth wrote. "They even arranged for Mr. Gonzalez to give lectures to their agents, as well as to the American Banking Association. Apparently, his talks included international operational methods and technology they taught him."
Sarris denied a request by prosecutors to have a government psychiatrist examine Gonzalez. She ruled Dec. 21 that prosecutors could raise the question again before his March 18 sentencing.
The New Jersey case transferred to Boston is U.S. v. Gonzalez, 09-cr-10382, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).