BOSTON - Last week’s charges against 11 individuals in the 2006 hacking of TJX Cos. and several other major retailers may be jeopardized by the fact the alleged ringleader was an informant for the U.S. Secret Service, which cracked the case.
Prosecutors said the help of Albert Gonzalez, known as “Segvec” or “SoupNazi” on the Internet, was vital in cracking the international conspiracy, which used credit card information stolen from TJX and others to drain accounts at hundreds of credit unions and banks around the U.S. Beside TJX, the group is believed to have hacked into the credit card databases of BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Boston Market, Dave & Busters, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSM.
Gonzalez and his accomplices drove around and scanned the wireless networks of major retailers to find security holes, known as “war driving,” then installed “sniffers” on the retailers’ systems that recorded the card information, before sending it to a secure server in Latvia, according to prosecutors. The data was then sold over the Internet to traffickers who used it to create counterfeit credit and debit cards, they said.
But Gonzalez, who is charged with stealing cards data as recently as March, has been working as a government informant since 2003, authorities confirmed last week. During that time, he has been involved in some of the biggest identity theft cases on record, including the shadowcrew ring that was busted in 2006 after directing bogus cards operations up and down the east coast; and this year’s theft of card information from the Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain.
Gonzalez was charged in at least two other federal identity theft cases in 2003, but the court records have all been expunged. One was the 2003 hacking into the database at BJ’s Wholesale Club, which forced hundreds of credit unions and banks to reissue credit and debit cards that had been used at the Big Box chain.
Court records show that in November 2004, the government allowed Gonzalez to move from New Jersey to Miami, where many of the subsequent hacking incidents took place.
Prosecutors said this week that Gonzalez apparently continued his criminal enterprise while he was a government informant, earning millions of dollars as a result, even going as far as to warn a target of the investigation, Damon Toey. Toey, who Gonzalez brought to Miami last August to work with him, was among those indicted in the TJX case this week.
“Obviously, we weren’t happy that a person working for us as an informant...was double-dealing,” said Michael Sullivan, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, during last week’s news conference in Boston.
As part of this week’s grand jury indictment, the government is asking for Gonzalez to forfeit about $1.7 million in cash, a 2006 BWI and other assets.
Another accomplice in the case, Ukrainian Maksym Yastremskiy, who helped sell the stolen cards information online, is believed to have earned more than $11 million from his role. “As soon as we became aware that Mr. Gonzalez was also working with criminals and getting them information, we immediately took action,” said Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, during the news conference.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
