A convicted VoIP hacker has been sentenced to 10 years in the slammer for stealing and reselling Internet telephone service valued at approximately $1.4 million.
“You were a crook,” US District Judge Susan Wigenton told Edwin Pena in a harshly-worded statement quoted by Bloomberg.
“You were very intelligent about what you were doing. You bought world-class BMWs. You were gambling. You were flying. [Well], I hope you enjoyed it.”
Indeed, Pena purchased a number of luxury items with the money he stole, including a Miami villa, a 40-foot motor boat, a 2004 BMW M3, a 2005 BMW 325 and a swanky 2005 Cadillac Escalade EXT.
The hacker was eventually arrested in 2009, but fled the US after posting bail.
He then traveled to Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico before an angry girlfriend turned him into police.
Nevertheless, Pena’s attorney asked Wigenton if she could reduce the sentence to just two years after the convicted hacker issued an emotional plea for leniency.
“I would like to apologize to the people of the United States, to my family, and especially to my daughter,” Pena said.
“I know I’m a changed person now. I’ve grown up. I know I’ll be good from now on.”
Wigenton, however, was unmoved.
“I [simply] don’t find he has any credibility when he says he’s a changed person.”
