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As an international ring of thieves plundered the credit card numbers of millions of Americans, investigators struggled to figure out who was orchestrating the crimes in the United States.
When prosecutors unveiled indictments last week, they made a stunning admission: the culprit was, they said, their very own informant.
Albert Gonzalez, 27, appeared to be a reformed hacker. To avoid prison time after being arrested in 2003, he had been helping federal agents identify his former cohorts in the online underworld where credit and debit card numbers are stolen, bought and sold.
But on the sly, federal officials now say, Mr. Gonzalez was connecting with those same cohorts and continuing to ply his trade, using online pseudonyms — including “soupnazi” — that would be his undoing. As they tell it, Mr. Gonzalez had a central role in a loosely organized online crime syndicate that obtained tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from nine of the biggest retailers in the United States.
The indictments last week of 11 people involved in the group give a remarkably comprehensive picture of how the Internet is enabling new kinds of financial crimes on a vast international scale.
Government lawyers also said that Mr. Gonzalez had used his position as a Secret Service informant to warn fellow conspirators about ongoing investigations. They say he appeared to have been involved in most aspects of the ring’s operations.
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But the government needs spying power to crawl up your asshole, America!!!!
PFFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!!!
