BOSTON – A one-time government informant convicted of identity theft at TJX Cos., Heartland Payment Systems and as many as a dozen companies is asking a federal judge if he can withdraw his guilty plea because he claims he was on a government assignment when he committed some of the biggest online identity thefts ever.
Thirty-year-old Albert Gonzalez, currently serving a 20-year sentence at the federal prison in Milan, Mich., has filed a motion to overturn his March 2010 guilty plea on the grounds that his illegal acts were sanctioned by the government.
Gonzalez claims in his new legal move that he was still working for the Secret Service when he hacked into the computer systems of TJX, Heartland Payment, Hannaford Brothers, BJ’s Wholesale Club, 7-Eleven, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, OfficeMax, and Dave & Busters. “When I committed the illegal acts to which I pleaded guilty I believed I was acting under the grant of authority for Agents of the U.S. Secret Service,” said Gonzalez in his motion.
The consumer data from these companies was sold over the Internet and used to either hack into accounts or make counterfeit credit cards. The cards were used to make purchases or withdraw cash by individuals, most of them unaffiliated, all over the world. Authorities estimate as much as $200 million was stolen from U.S. accounts in this manner.
The federal government has publicly conceded that Gonzalez worked for the Secret Service as a confidential informant on cybercrime after his 2003 arrest for hacking into private computer systems. During court proceedings the Secret Service maintained that Gonzalez was not authorized by it when he subsequently hacked into many of the nation’s biggest retailers and that it was unaware of his actions. The government is scheduled to submit its response to Gonzalez’s motion in the next few weeks to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where he pleaded guilty for the TJX case.
According to documents submitted with the motion, Gonzalez began working for the Secret Service in 2003 in exchange for staying out of jail when he was convicted of stealing card data and selling it online as part of the Secret Service’s “Operation Firewall.” He claims his work helped lead to several major indictments and convictions and that he was somewhat of a star within the Secret Service.
“I was asked to commit acts I knew were illegal,” he said. When he questioned his superiors in the Secret Service he said they told him, “don’t worry, we’ve got your back.”
“At that point,” says Gonzalez, “I would have done anything they asked me to do.”
According to Gonzalez, the Secret Service paid him $1,200 per month as an informant, and on some occasions agents gave him extra cash. One time, he said, he needed $5,000 to pay off a debt to a Russian involved in the online card frauds so the agency agreed to look the other way when he used his hacking skills to earn the money.
Gonzalez said he was shocked when he was arrested May 7, 2008, and he tried to use his Secret Service connections to get him off. “I was expecting the Secret Service to come and take custody of me and squash the charges,” he said. Gonzalez maintains all of his actions were authorized by the government. He claims he is being made a “scapegoat” to cover someone’s mistake.
