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Hacker with Asperger’s Sentenced to 55 Months for Trucking Scheme
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:31:30 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/truckers/ By Kevin Poulsen Threat Level Wired.com August 10, 2009 A Los Angeles hacker received a slightly reduced sentence Monday of 55 months in prison for participating in a multi-million computer fraud scheme, after a federal judge took into account the man’s diagnosis with Asperger’s Syndrome. Viachelav Berkovich, 34, received five months less than the minimum recommended by the probation office and prosecutors, and 23 months less than the minimum under federal sentencing guidelines. His co-defendant, Nicholas Lakes, 36, was sentenced last month to 70 months for masterminding the scheme. “The court tried to make a fair sentence … and gave us some of what we asked for, and did accept that Mr. Berkovich suffered from Asperger’s,” says Kiana Sloan-Hillier, Berkovich’s defense attorney. “But at the same time felt that this was serious and that a substantial prison sentence was called for to deter others.” The sentence comes barely a week after British hacker Gary McKinnon lost his High Court appeals to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he’s accused of cracking nearly 100 Pentagon and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002, and allegedly causing $700,000 in damage. McKinnon’s lawyer, and legions of UK supporters, have decried the extradition request as inhumane because of McKinnon’s recent diagnosis with Asperger’s — a mild form of autism that makes social interactions difficult, and sometimes leads to obsessive, repetitive behavior. [...]
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