Scott Levine, formerly the chief executive officer of Snipermail.com, an e-mail marketing firm, was convicted of 120 counts of unauthorized access to data, two counts of access device fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. The counts stem from Levine’s participation in data theft from Acxiom Corp., a Little Rock, AR-based data firm.
Levine was cleared of 13 counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer, one count of conspiracy and one count of money laundering.
The counts Levine was convicted on carry a maximum sentence of 640 years in prison and fines of $30.7 million. Levine will be sentence on Jan. 9, 2006.
Levine and Snipermail had been charged with stealing more than 1.5 billion consumer records from Acxiom, according to published reports. According to the Associated Press, Acxiom stored data for one of the advertisers that used Snipermail. Between April 2002 and August 2003, Levine took advantage of Snipermail’s access to the Acxiom servers to steal 8.2 gigabytes of information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and bank and credit card numbers.
Prosecutors alleged that Levine used the information to enhance his own consumer record holdings, and that he had attempted sell his company, with its enhanced records, to Experian, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins said that there had been no reported cases of identity theft as a result of the breaches. Upon Levine’s conviction Friday afternoon, Acxiom released a statement saying in part that it was pleased by the verdict, and that since the crime was uncovered it had strengthened its security system.
