Master credit card thief claims US government authorized his crimes

By Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Apr. 11, 2011

A year ago, Albert Gonzalez confessed to having led an operation that stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers by hacking into computers at TJ Maxx and other retailers and was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Now he wants his conviction overturned on the grounds that the US Secret Service authorized him to do it.

In a habeas corpus petition filed on March 24, Gonzales writes, "I still believe that I was acting on behalf of the United States Secret Service and that I was authorized and directed to engage in the conduct I committed as part of my assignment to gather intelligence and seek out international cybercriminals. ... I now know and understand that I have been used as a scapegoat to cover someone's mistakes."

(The full petition is available here.)

According to The Register, however, "Gonzalez, 29, who escaped jail time back in 2004 over his involvement in the sale of 1.5 million stolen credit and ATM card numbers while a member of the Shadowcrew group by ratting out his erstwhile partners in cybercrime, went on to bigger and better things. While supposedly working for the Secret Service, he acted as ringleader in a massive credit card theft and laundering operation involving an estimated 170 million credit cards between around July 2005 and his arrest in May 2008."

Gonzalez himself claims that the Secret Service "treated me like one of their own" and that he was even invited to brief the government agents on malware and other security vulnerabilities. "All of this inflated my ego and made me feel very important and made me feel like I was really a part of the Secret Service with the backing and support of the Government Agency," he writes. "One day I was unknown and nothing and the next day I am being hailed as a genius."

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