Gonzalez v. United States of America

On March 25, 2010, Albert Gonzalez – an American hacker, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for involvement in various computer crimes, fraud, and thievery of identities.[1] Gonzalez was arrested in July 2003 after detectives sported him withdrawing hundreds of dollars from multiple programmed stacks of ATM cards. His arrest was acknowledged by the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office, which was following a credit and debit card fraud in collaboration with Secret Service’s Electronic Crimes Task Force.[2] One of the secret agents lured Gonzalez into believing that he would receive pardon from 20 years imprisonment if he cooperated.[3] Thus, he exposed dozens of culprits involved in a cyberbazaar – Shadocrew. After another aide, Gonzalez was promoted to a paid Secret Service Field Agent in Miami 2006.[4] He and cybercrime allies accessed more than 180 million payment accounts from databases of eight companies during this period.[5] He was arrested and would be tried in Boston.

Prosecution

On March 25, 2010, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to all charges and claimed to blame no one but himself.[6] He was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the U.S District Court Judge Patti B. Saris for hacking into major payment processing databases.[7] On the same day, the New York indictment charged Gonzalez with a fraud and computer crimes and related conspiracies, for which the U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced him to another 20 years.[8] Both sentences would run concurrently, meaning that Gonzalez would be in prison for 20 years.

Appeal

After the sentence, Gonzalez appealed on four grounds. Firstly, he claimed that a false promise that all three cases would be heard in one district compelled his pleading guilty. However, he was prosecuted in both Boston and New Jersey, in two different prosecutions that sent him to prison for 20 years. According to Saris in the Albert Gonzalez Petitioner, v. United States of America, Gonzalez did not understand the promise which had specifically mentioned such an outcome, and this appeal on this ground was denied.[9] Secondly, Gonzalez alleged that his attorneys were ineffective in public defense since, as a Secret Service Agent, his duties included infiltrating various network protocols.[10] Nevertheless, he could not validate such assertions. Thirdly, he alleged that his attorneys failed to file a motion suppressing all evidence collected from his allies, who were tortured.[11] Nevertheless, the suppression of the motion was not reasonably backed up. Lastly, Gonzalez appealed that his attorneys had failed to honor his instructions to file an appeal immediately after the prosecution, but they did not do that centrally to his acknowledgment and consent.[12] However, his request was found to have been highly implausible. Gonzalez’s petition as per the (Doc. No. 121) was denied by the U.S District Judge Saris

Bibliography

Gonzalez Petitioner v. United States of America, Criminal No. 09-10262-PBS (United States District Court District of Massachusetts).

U.S. Department of Justice. “Leader Of Hacking Ring Sentenced For Massive Identity Thefts From Payment Processor And U.S. Retail Networks”. Justice.Gov, Last modified 2014. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-hacking-ring-sentenced-massive-identity-thefts-payment-processor-and-us-retail.

Verini, James. “The Great Cyberheist (Published 2010)”. Nytimes.Com, Last modified 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html.

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[1] Gonzalez Petitioner v. United States of America, Criminal No. 09-10262-PBS (United States District Court District of Massachusetts)

[2] James Verini, “The Great Cyberheist (Published 2010)”, Nytimes.Com, Last modified 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] U.S. Department of Justice, “Leader Of Hacking Ring Sentenced For Massive Identity Thefts From Payment Processor And U.S. Retail Networks”, Justice.Gov, Last modified 2014, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-hacking-ring-sentenced-massive-identity-thefts-payment-processor-and-us-retail.

[6] James Verini, “The Great Cyberheist (Published 2010)”, Nytimes.Com

[7] Gonzalez Petitioner v. United States of America

[8] U.S. Department of Justice, “Leader Of Hacking Ring Sentenced For Massive Identity Thefts From Payment Processor And U.S. Retail Networks”,

[9] Gonzalez Petitioner v. United States of America

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid

[12] Ibid.