Celebgate Celebrity Nude Photo Hacker Sentenced to 9-Months In Prison
29-year-old Edward Majerczyk from Chicago has been recently sentenced to nine months of imprisonment for his involvement in the notorious hacking scandal that victimized a lot of female Hollywood celebrities.
According to a Chicago Tribune report, Majerczyk admitted he played a major role in breaching hundreds of email accounts in the infamous Celebgate hacking scandal where nude photos of Hollywood actresses were leaked, including those of "The Hunger Games" lead actress Jennifer Lawrence and supermodel Kate Upton.
Deadline reports that the breaching scandal involved at least 300 personal email accounts. Among those were at least 30 accounts that belonged to Hollywood celebrities "whose information was specifically targeted," according to Deirdre Fike, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Los Angeles field office.
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In a signed plea, Majerczyk recounted that he used phishing emails to illegally access iCloud and Gmail accounts.
Deadline quoted U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker's argument: "This defendant engaged in a computer hacking scheme that not only gave him access to his victims' computers, it also gave him access to the most personal details of their lives. This was a deep intrusion into the victims' privacy and a violation of federal law."
Majercyzk's defense lawyer reportedly argued during the proceedings: "At the time of the offense, Mr. Majerczyk was suffering from depression and looked to pornography websites and Internet chat rooms in an attempt to fill some of the voids and disappointment he was feeling in his life."
The sentence was a result of a bargain after Majerczyk pleaded guilty to have violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse act. He was convicted to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer. Aside from serving nine months of jail time, the court ordered Majerczyk to pay one of his victims' as restitution for counseling services expenses amounting to $5,700.
U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras, who administered the trial, called Majerczyk's actions "abhorrent." However, the Chicago Tribune also noted that Majerczyk was not accused or convicted of posting the leaked photos himself.
