- By Kim Zetter
Admitted TJX intruder Albert Gonzalez has entered into a plea agreement on charges that he hacked into Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven and two other unnamed national retailers.
The revelation comes in a filing made by Gonzalez’s attorney in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where the Heartland charges were filed in August.
A federal judge on Tuesday officially transferred the New Jersey case to Massachusetts, where Gonzalez is seeking to merge it with two other cases in which he’s already pleaded guilty.
Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant known by the online nicks “segvec” and “Cumbajohnny,” was charged in New Jersey in August, along with two unnamed Russian hackers. They were accused of stealing more than 130 million debit and credit cards from card-processing company Heartland and the other target companies.
Gonzalez and 10 others were also charged in May 2008 in New York and in August 2008 in Massachusetts with network intrusions into TJX, OfficeMax, Dave & Busters restaurant chain and other companies. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to these charges in August and was scheduled to be sentenced in Massachusetts on Dec. 21 in both cases.
He was expected to get a sentence of between 15 and 25 years in prison. That sentencing is likely to be delayed now to allow time for the new guilty plea, and for the government, defense and U.S. probation office to recalibrate their sentencing positions to account for the New Jersey charges.
TJX Hacker to Plead Guilty to Heartland, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven Breaches
NACS Online - Gonzalez was charged in August, accused of stealing more than 130 million debit and credit cards from card-processor Heartland and other companies. ...
Reuters - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
