Hector Xavier Monsegur, the LulzSec chief hacker turned FBI informant, allegedly participated in a number of online attacks since 1999.
Monsegur, who adopted the nom de plume “Sabu,” was also accused of attempting to sell four pounds of marijuana, buying stolen jewelry and using a former employer’s credit card to make $15,000 in purchases.
However, Monsegur won’t be charged for the above-mentioned crimes due to his cooperation with law enforcement officials.
Nevertheless, Sabu may face more than 122 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2011 to 12 criminal charges, including three counts of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
“Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has been cooperating with the government proactively,” Assistant US Attorney James Pastore said at an Aug. 5, 2011, bail hearing quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
“He has been staying up sometimes all night engaging in conversations with co-conspirators that are helping the government build cases against those co-conspirators… The defendant’s information is also helping the government close in on several prominent cybercriminals.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times has dubbed the chronically unemployed 28-year-old Sabu a “hacker, informant and party boy of the projects.”
“He partied all night,” one neighbor told the paper. “I always made complaints to the police. Nothing was done.”
Another neighbor apparently complained twice to a local community board about the chronic noise, which she claimed persisted from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m., seven days a week. Other occupants of the Jacob Riis Houses, a Lower East Side housing project, said they smelled marijuana wafting through the hallways from wild parties in Sabu’s apartment, which were reportedly attended by a half-sister, several brothers and a white pit bull named China.
As noted above, Monsegur faces 122 years in prison, although prosecutors are likely to recommend leniency in return for his “substantial assistance” in taking down LulzSec.
