FC: Scarfo pleads guilty, ends legal battle over PGP spying tech

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Politech archive on U.S. v. Scarfo:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=scarfo

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Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 10:10:29 -0500
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: David Sobel <sobel () epic org>
Subject: Scarfo Plea Bargain

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/2769774.htm

Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002

Scarfo's high-tech case ends with plea

The FBI had fought a bid by the mob boss' son for details on the
top-secret device used to monitor his computer.

By George Anastasia
Inquirer Staff Writer

NEWARK, N.J. - The son of jailed Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo
"Little Nicky" Scarfo pleaded guilty to a bookmaking charge here
yesterday, quietly ending a run-of-the-mill underworld gambling case
that had taken on national significance because of the top-secret
technology the FBI used to gather evidence against him.

Throughout a two-year pretrial debate, authorities vigorously opposed
defense lawyers' attempts to get detailed information about a computer
monitoring device, a so-called keystroke recorder, that was used to
break a coded computer file where the younger Scarfo allegedly stored
gambling records. Prosecutors contended that to disclose how the
technology worked would have jeopardized national security.

Nicodemo S. Scarfo, 36, entered the guilty plea during a brief hearing
before U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano. Scarfo admitted supervising a
gambling operation in North Jersey for about a year, beginning in the
summer of 1998.

[...]

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http://news.com.com/2100-1023-848173.html
   
   Plea turns legal heat off PC surveillance
   By Reuters 
   February 28, 2002, 2:50 PM PT

   Reputed mobster Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. pleaded guilty to illegal gambling
   Thursday in a New Jersey federal court, ending the case that
   inadvertently produced the first ruling supporting the government's
   right to spy on personal computers. 
   
   According to the plea agreement, Scarfo, 36, of Belleville, N.J.,
   agreed to serve a minimum 33 months in prison and not to contest a
   longer term that may be imposed when he is sentenced June 10 by U.S.
   District Court Judge Joel Pisano.
   
   Scarfo, who remains under house arrest until the sentencing, also
   agreed to two to three years of supervised release following the jail
   term. He may also be fined as much as $250,000, or twice the gross
   proceeds from the illegal bookmaking operation he admitted he ran
   between 1998 and 1999 from his Belleville office.

   [...]

   The case began as a commonplace bookmaking case until defense
   attorneys demanded disclosure of FBI secret surveillance of the office
   computer Scarfo used to keep track of bets. Then, as the first such
   case in federal courts, it drew national attention to the issue of
   computer privacy rights vs. law enforcement's right to use secret
   computer technology.

   [...]

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