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BOSTON – Albert Gonzalez, the mastermind behind the data breaches that siphoned tens of millions of dollars from credit unions and banks, agreed last week to plead guilty to stealing credit card information from TJX Cos. and several other retailers.
The 38-year-old Gonzalez, who worked a government informant during the time he was engaging in criminal activity, has been charged with the well-known breaches at TJX, Sports Authority, Barnes & Nobles, BJ's Wholesale Club, Dave & Buster's, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Forever 21 and DSW shoes, and more recently with the breaches at Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford Bros. and 7-Eleven.
The hacker, known by his online handles of soupnazi and segvec, agreed to forfeit more than $2.8 million in cash, a condominium in Miami, a blue 2006 BMW automobile, IBM and Toshiba laptop computers and related equipment, a Glock 27 firearm, a Nokia cell phone, a Tiffany diamond ring and three Rolex watches, according to the filing with the U.S. District Court on Friday. He is expected to be sentenced to 15-to-25 years in prison under the agreement.
Gonzalez, who has been in federal custody in Brooklyn, N.Y., since a year ago, worked as a federal informant after he was arrested in 2003 for helping organize the online credit card fraud ring, known as shadowcrew.com, which sold credit union and bank card information online.
The plea agreement comes two weeks before Gonzalez was scheduled to go on trial for his role in hacking into the computer system at Dave & Buster's, a national amusement chain.
