The U.S. Justice Department has announced that three Americans and one Canadian have been charged in connection with the hackers break, in that involved the theft of intellectual properties that is estimated to reach at least $100 million USD. The victims include the U.S. Army, Windows maker Microsoft and other big game developers.
The hackers are all young with ages ranging from their late teens to their late twenties. They have been charged of allegedly stealing training software for Apache Helicopters, copies of unreleased versions of games such as "COD: Modern Warfare 3." According to the Justice Department, two of the hackers charged have already pleaded guilty this week.
Prosecutors claimed that the value of the intellectual property taken ranges from $100 million up to $200 million USD. The DOJ amount estimation is currently being questioned by one of the defendants. The hackers break-in resulted in the theft of several intellectual property data connected with the Xbox One console and Xbox Live networks along with several unreleased version copies of various games.
The defendants accused in the hackers break-in are Nathan Leroux, aged 20, from Bowie, Maryland; Austin Alcala, aged 18, of McCordsville, Indiana; Sanadodeh Neshiwat, aged 28, from Washington, New Jersey. The fourth defendant is Canadian David Pokora, aged 22, from Mississauga, Ontario. According to the Justice Department, a fifth man is also facing similar charges in Australia. The press in Australia identified the fifth man as Dylan Wheeler, age 19, of Perth.
The two defendants who earlier pleaded guilty are American Neshiwat and Canadian Pokora. They pleaded their guilt to computer fraud conspiracy and infringement on copyrights. The two will receive their sentence on January of next year. They face up to five years imprisonment for their part in the hackers break-in.
As a group, they jointly faced computer fraud conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, identity and trade secrets theft, as well as copyright infringement.
