Ehud Tenenbaum, known as “The Analyzer,” pleaded guilty in a New York court last week to a single count of bank-card fraud where, according to federal officials, some $10 million were stolen from US banks by computer hacking. Tenenbaum, 29, earned his nickname when he, several other Israelis and two California teens hacked the US Pentagon’s computers in 1998. He was 19 at the time. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was halfway through his first term when Tenebaum was arrested, said he was “…good, but very dangerous, too.”
This time, Tenenbaum was extradited to the US from Canada after Canada arrested him for allegedly stealing about $1.5 million from Canadian banks.
Prosecutors alleged in an extradition affidavit that Tenenbaum hacked into two US banks, a credit- and debit-card distribution company and a payment processor, in what they called a global “cash-out” conspiracy. But he was only charged with one count of conspiracy to commit access-device fraud and one count of access-device fraud.
His sentence will be announced November 19, and he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. Prosecutors declined to comment on the case or describe the details of his plea agreement. The second count in the indictment, charging conspiracy, appears to have been dropped.
When Tenenbaum was arrested in Canada about a year and a half ago, Darren Hafner, an acting detective with the Calgary police that took him in, said, “I think he’s probably been getting away with stuff for 10 years. We haven’t seen or heard from him since the Pentagon attack. But these guys tend to get this ‘cops can’t touch me attitude’ and then they get sloppy like any criminal in any type of crime.”
His former interrogator from the time of the Pentagon attack was also dismissive Tenenbaum’s reputation as a genius. “He acts like any other recidivist delinquent,” he told Army Radio. “What’s so brilliant about it? The papers only write he’s brilliant because they need to sell,” he said.
{JPost/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}
One thing I think is a pella is a murderer who takes someones life usually ends up with less years in jail than someone who steals someones money. Is our money more valuable than a persons life?
Signed curious and confused.