Tag Archive for: Man’

Michigan man sentenced for sexual assault of underage girl in Limerick

/in


NORRISTOWN — A Michigan man already serving time in federal prison for manufacturing child pornography while engaging in text communications with a teenage Montgomery County girl admitted in county court that he met and sexually assaulted the girl at a Limerick Township hotel.

Mark Allen Hillis, 60, of Southgate, Mich., was sentenced in county court to 15 to 30 years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under 16, unlawful contact with a minor and sexual abuse of children photographing and depicting sexual acts in connection with incidents that occurred in December 2019.

Hillis also must complete three years’ probation following parole, meaning he will be under court supervision on the county charges for 33 years.

The county sentence, imposed by Judge Thomas C. Branca as part of a plea agreement, will run concurrently with a 25-year federal sentence Hillis received in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia last November after he pleaded guilty there to charges of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct, manufacturing and attempted manufacturing of child pornography, transferring obscene material to a minor, and possessing child pornography.

Under the federal and county sentences, Hillis won’t be eligible for parole until he’s in his 80s.

With the county charges, prosecutors essentially handled the charges related to Hillis’ hands-on contact with the underage girl at the Limerick hotel.

Assistant District Attorney Gabriella Glenning sought a significant state prison term against Hillis.

“The defendant fostered a relationship with a 13-year-old, built her trust, made her feel like they had a relationship and under that had her send him nude photographs of herself and then ultimately meeting up with her in person to accomplish his goal. That is heinous,” Glenning said. “To facilitate a hands-on offense is just horrendous.”

Prosecutors said the charges arose from Hillis’ sexual exploitation of the underage girl by using the internet and text messaging over a period of months, by traveling from…

Source…

Man known as ‘PlugwalkJoe’ admits to Twitter hack that hijacked celebrity accounts

/in


By Margi Murphy | Bloomberg

A British man has admitted to his involvement in one of the most high-profile social media hacks, a plot that included the hijacking of top US political and business leaders’ Twitter accounts.

Joseph James O’Connor pleaded guilty in New York on Tuesday to hacking into the social network, a move that led to the impersonation of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and others to advertise a Bitcoin scheme.

The 23-year-old, also known as “PlugwalkJoe,” was extradited from Spain on April 26, according to the Department of Justice. The crimes involved SIM swaps — a process in which a phone number is transferred to a new device in order to bypass security measures — but went far beyond that, prosecutors said.

“O’Connor used his sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes — conducting a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting computer intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, including a minor,” said US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

“O’Connor’s guilty plea today is a testament to the importance of law enforcement cooperation, and I thank our law enforcement partners for helping to bring to justice to those who victimize others through cyberattacks,” he said.

The Department of Justice alleges that O’Connor plotted with others to hijack Twitter accounts to promote a scheme to defraud the public, with O’Connor paying $10,000 for just one of the accounts he requested. The co-conspirators used social engineering techniques to convince a Twitter employee into giving them access to administrative tools to the platform. Those tools were used to take control of the high-profile accounts.

According to the charge sheet, O’Connor pleaded guilty to a variety of cybercrimes, including the exploitation of social media accounts, online extortion and cyberstalking.

Source…

Detroit man sentenced to prison for hacking into bank accounts, stealing $300K

/in


A Detroit man was sentenced to prison for stealing more than $300,000 from the bank accounts in a criminal enterprise, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Wednesday.

Johnny Richardson, 28, was sentenced to three to 20 years behind bars for conducting a criminal enterprise that included gaining cellphone data of victims and hacking into their bank accounts for money or to take out loans, according to Nessel’s office. Richardson will be required to pay for court costs, crime victim fees and $309,210 in restitution.

Richardson already is serving eight years in prison for operating an unemployment fraud scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic. He pleaded guilty in July 2021 to stealing $138,000 in COVID aid.

Source…

Northern District of Iowa | Man Who Possessed Child Pornography Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison

/in


A man who possessed over 3,500 photographs and 25 videos of child pornography was sentenced today to more than 5 years in federal prison.

Stephen Gruber, age 60, from Sumner, Iowa, received the prison term after an October 13, 2022 guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

At the guilty plea, Gruber admitted he possessed child pornography on his computer between November 2016 and March 2017.

Gruber was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Gruber was sentenced to 63 months’ imprisonment.  He was also ordered to make restitution.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Gruber is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Liz Dupuich and investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Sumner Police Department.. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 22-cr-2054.

Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.

Source…