WASHINGTON, D.C. - A jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, found Scott Levine guilty of 120 counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer, two counts of access device fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice, after a trial that began on July 11, 2005. The jury commenced deliberations on August 10, 2005, and took approximately three days to reach its verdict. The announcement was made today by John C. Richter, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division; Bud Cummins, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas; Brian Marr, Special Agent in Charge of the Little Rock office of the United States Secret Service (USSS); and William C. Temple, Special Agent in Charge of the Little Rock office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Levine, 46, of Boca Raton, Florida will be sentenced by United States District Judge William R. Wilson, who presided over the trial. The sentencing date has been set for January 9, 2006, at 9:00 a.m.
"The verdict today demonstrates the Department's strong commitment to protecting the personal information of the American public," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Laura H. Parsky. "Those who steal private information can expect to be aggressively investigated and brought to justice."
"Computer hacking and data theft are serious crimes in our modern economy. Because of the volume and value of the data stolen by Mr. Levine, this quickly became a priority case for us," said United States Attorney Cummins. "It was a model investigation, utilizing the cooperation and impressive resources of many law enforcement agencies and Department of Justice attorneys from Arkansas, Florida and Washington, D.C. This team did a fabulous job in a very complex case."
At the time of the charged crime, Scott Levine was an officer of Snipermail, Inc., a Florida corporation engaged in the business of distributing advertisements over the Internet to e-mail addresses. The evidence at trial showed that Levine, working with others at Snipermail, Inc., was responsible for stealing over a billion records containing personal information, physical addresses, and e-mail addresses, among other items, through approximately August 2003. The evidence also demonstrated that Levine illegally obtained those records by using "cracked" passwords to exceed his access and obtain additional unauthorized access to Acxiom databases containing information belonging to Axciom's clients. The jury also heard testimony from several former Snipermail employees who described how Levine participated with others to conceal physical evidence relating to the intrusions and thefts of data. The criminal investigation was jointly conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service. The investigation was also assisted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida. The investigation and prosecution team for the Department of Justice included Assistant U.S. Attorneys George C. Vena, Todd L. Newton, and Karen L. Coleman from the Eastern District of Arkansas and Trial Attorney Amanda M. Hubbard of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
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