Underground carders market. Translation of the book "KingPIN". Chapter 35. "Verdict"

Is it worth it to serve 13 years in prison for $ 80 million and the status of “king of carders”?

Kevin Poulsen, editor of the magazine WIRED, and in his childhood blackhat, the hacker Dark Dante, wrote a book about " one of his acquaintances ."

The book shows the path from a teenager-geek (but at the same time pitching), to a seasoned cyber-pahan, as well as some methods of the work of the special services to catch hackers and carders.
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The book quest for book translation began in the summer at ITish camp for high school students - “ Shkvoren: schoolchildren translate a book about hackers, ” then Habrayusers and even a little editorial staff joined the translation.

How Max was arrested read in Chapter 33: “Exit Strategy” , as the entire network covered Chapter 34: “DarkMarket” .

Chapter 35. "Verdict"

(for the translation thanks to comodohacker)

Max towered over the bailiffs who took him to the Pittsburgh Court for sentencing. He was dressed in an orange prison uniform that was not fitting well; his hair was short and well cut. The convoy removed the handcuffs, and he sat at the table for the defendant next to the public defender. In the hall on one side, half a dozen reporters were talking among themselves, on the other, the same number of federals. Behind them, the long wooden benches were almost empty: neither friends, nor family members, nor Charity — she had already told Max that she would not wait for him.

It was February 12, 2010, two and a half years after his arrest in a safe house. Max spent the first month in custody at the Santa Clara County Prison, talking long hours on the phone with Charity. These conversations were more intimate than all their conversations at the time when he was absorbed in his criminal affairs. Then the bailiffs put him on a plane and transported him to a temporary detention facility in Ohio. There, Max has already come to terms with his conclusion, having spent all the hypocritical anger that supported him until the end of the previous terms of imprisonment. He found new friends here - the same geeks. They began to play Dungeons and Dragons.

By the end of the year, Max had no more secrets. It took only two weeks for investigators from CERT to find the encryption key in the image of the RAM removed from his computer. At one of the court sessions, prosecutor Luc Demboski handed Max lawyer a piece of paper, where his password was written: "!! One man can make a difference!" (“One person can do a lot”)

For years, Max used an encrypted hard drive as an extension of his brain, retaining everything he found and everything he did. The fact that the feds got it all was certainly detrimental to his future from the point of view of the law, but moreover, it was like an invasion of his personality. Authorities climbed into his head, reading thoughts and memories. Returning to the camera after that meeting, he sobbed into the pillow.

They got everything: five terabytes of hacking tools, phishing emails, files that he collected on his network friends and enemies, notes on his affairs and interests, and 1.8 million credit card data from more than a thousand banks. The authorities dismantled them all: 1.1 million cards Max stole from POS systems. The rest were mostly from other carders that Max cracked.

If you measure them by the length of the magnetic strips, it turned out eight miles, and the feds were ready to bring him to account for every inch. The authorities secretly brought Chris to Pittsburgh for a few weeks to review actions. Card companies calculated the fraud amount for Max cards and came to a staggering figure: $ 86.4 million in damages.

Max’s profit was much smaller: Max told the authorities that he had earned no more than a million dollars on his frauds and he let most of them out on rent, food, taxis and gadgets. In the WebMoney wallet Max found about $ 80,000. But Federal directives on sentencing for theft are based on the damage of the victims, and not on the benefit of intruders. So, Max was responsible for the sums filmed both by Chris, and the carders who bought the dumps from Digits and Generous, and maybe even the fraud made by those carders that Max himself hacked. If we sum up over the whole “track record”, then 86 million were poured out over a period of thirty years to life, without the right to early release.

In the face of prospects to spend decades in prison, Max began to work with the investigation. Mularsky took the hacker for a long session of his crimes. At one of them, after the operation against DarkMarket appeared in the press, Max apologized to Mularski for his attempts to substitute Master Splyntr. Mularsky heard sincerity in the words of a longtime enemy, and apologies were accepted. After a year of negotiations, Max’s lawyer and the prosecution agreed on a single figure - a joint request from the court to appoint thirteen years. In July 2009, Max admitted his guilt.

But this transaction was not mandatory for the court. Theoretically, Max could both be released from the courtroom, sentenced to life imprisonment, or he could be assigned anything between these extremes. On the eve of the sentence, Max scored four pages of a letter to Maurice Kohil, a seventy-year-old judge appointed by President Ford, who became a lawyer before Max was born.

“I’m not sure that further imprisonment in prison will help anyone in my case,” wrote Max. “I don't think this is necessary, because all I want is to help. I do not agree with the thoughtless assessments of the Directive on sentencing. Unfortunately, such a terrible sentence is shining for me that even 13 years seem to be a relatively "good" term. But I assure you that this too is superfluous, it’s like quitting a dead horse. Nevertheless, I am going to make the best use of the time left for me on this earth, whether in prison or elsewhere. ”

He continued: “I regret a lot, but I think my main mistake was that I lost touch with the responsibility and obligations that are imposed on me as a member of society. My friend once told me to behave as if everyone could always see what I was doing. This is a good way to avoid illegal behavior; but it seems that I didn’t like it, since being invisible, I forgot about this advice. Now I know that we cannot be invisible, it is dangerous to think so. ”

Max observed with complacent serenity how his lawyer was confessing with the accusation of some final details, and the judicial officers fulfill their duties before the meeting, check the microphones and shift the papers. At ten to thirty in the morning the door of the judge’s office opened. "Everyone get up!"

Judge Kohil took his place. A dryish man with a short cropped white beard, he looked around the courtroom through round glasses and announced the sentencing of Max Butler, under this name Max appeared in the charge. He read the Directive on sentencing, from thirty years to life, for the record, then began to listen as the prosecutor Demboski expressed his condescension arguments. Max provided substantial assistance to the authorities, he said, and deserves a milder sentence than prescribed by directives.

Further action was more like awarding awards, not punishment; when Max's lawyer, the prosecutor and the judge himself took turns extolling his computer talents and indisputable repentance. “He is an extraordinarily brilliant self-taught computer expert,” said federal public defender Michael Novara, although he organized “hacking on security systems on a grand scale.”

Demboski, a computer crime expert and honored worker at the Prosecutor’s Office with seven years of experience, called Max “extremely bright and talented.” He attended some of Max’s debriefing sessions, and along with practically everyone who knew Max in real life, he got into sympathy with the hacker. “He is optimistic, almost naive with his view of the world,” he said. Max’s collaboration, he added, was the reason they asked for only thirteen years instead of an “astronomical” term. "I am sure he is very sorry."

Max could not add much to what was said. “I have changed,” he said. Hacking no longer attracted him. He invited Judge Kohil to ask him any questions. Kohil did not need this. The judge said he was impressed with Max’s letter, as well as letters written by Charity, Tim Spencer, Max’s mother, father and sister. He was satisfied that Max repented. I don’t think I should give you a lecture on the problems you have created for your victims.

Kohil has already written a sentence. He read it out loud. Thirteen years in prison. Also, Max is obliged to reimburse $ 27.5 million in losses; this is the cost of reissuing the 1.1 million bank cards that Max stole through POS terminals. After his release, he should be supervised for another five years, during which he is allowed to use the Internet only for official or educational purposes.

“Good luck,” he told Max.

Max got up, with an indifferent face, and gave the bailiff to fasten the handcuffs at the back and lead him through the door on the back of the courtroom leading to the cells. Given the time already served and good behavior, he should have been released in 2018, just before Christmas.

He was still nine years in prison. It was the longest time ever awarded to a hacker in the United States.

To be continued