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Snipermail's Head Takes A Judicial Bullet
By David Utter
Expert Author
Article Date: 2005-08-12
Scott Levine was convicted on 123 counts in federal court on charges related to information theft from Acxiom Corp.
Florida-based Snipermail.com stole 1.6 billion customer records from Acxiom, and attempted to present itself to Experian as a buyout target. Those crimes got Mr. Levine convicted on 120 counts of unauthorized access to data, two counts of access device fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice, according to ArkansasBusiness.com.
Those convictions could see Mr. Levine sentenced to 640 years in prison, with statutes providing for fines of over $30 million. The US District Court in Little Rock will likely sentence him to a lesser term. Acxiom Corp is based in Little Rock.
Snipermail employees flipped into plea bargains with federal prosecutors. They testified that Mr. Levine utilized a security flaw in Acxiom's ftp server and accessed personal records for scores of people. After adding that data to Snipermail's existing database, Mr. Levine approached Experian about buying him out.
Defense attorneys tried to portray Mr. Levine as a non-computer savvy management type, but prosecution witnesses and incriminating evidence on his personal laptops proved too much for the jury to ignore.
Now, Mr. Levine faces a forfeiture hearing in less than three weeks, and sentencing on January 9th. Prosecutors have characterized the case as the largest ever theft of data in history.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.
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