Indian-origin hacker gets 51 months jail for computer fraud in US
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 May, 2023 12:52 PM
ew York, May 24 (IANS) A 38-year-old Indian-origin hacker from Virginia was sentenced to more than four years in prison for hacking into computers and stealing customer credit card numbers.
Chirag Patel from Norfolk pleaded guilty to computer fraud and was sentenced by US District Judge G Murray Snow to 51 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
He also was ordered to pay $87,522.25 in restitution, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona said on Monday.
According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel hacked into the Phoenix-based computers of an international hospitality company on numerous occasions.
He then fraudulently transferred and redeemed customer reward points from the company's customer loyalty program.
In addition, Patel also stole credit card numbers and other personally identifying information (PII) from customers and loyalty program members, which were stored in the company's computers.
Patel took screenshots of customers' and members' information, which included credit card numbers and other PII, and saved the screenshots to a Google Drive he controlled.
In total, between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel stole and possessed more than 1,200 credit card numbers, the FBI investigation found.
He used some of the stolen credit card numbers to make unauthorized purchases and also tried to sell some of the stolen credit card numbers.
Narkkeeran Arasan, 45, who pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking controlled drugs, admitted during the probe that he was facing financial stress and wanted to sell cannabis to get fast cash, The Straits Times reported. The Central Narcotics Bureau acted on information received and arrested Narkkeeran in Woodlands while he was a passenger in a Grab car on April 12, 2021.
Srinivasa Raju, 51, of Haskell, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before US District Judge Michael A. Shipp to information charging him with conspiring to violate the federal anti-kickback statute. According to court documents, Raju had various responsibilities at the Morris County pharmacy, including coordinating prescription deliveries and soliciting business.
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday the agency is “concerned about the risk to life in China” amid the coronavirus’ explosive spread across the country and the lack of outbreak data from the Chinese government.
Lokesh S. Tantuwaya, 55, of San Diego, California, performed surgeries at a now-defunct hospital in Long Beach. He was sentenced by US District Judge Josephine L Staton, who also ordered him to forfeit his ill-gotten gains of $3.3 million, a Department of Justice statement noted.
Manish Shah, 53, has been found guilty of 25 sexual assaults against four women at his GP clinic in Romford, east London, the BBC reported. After the latest verdict, Shah is now convicted of 115 offences of sexual assault and assault by penetration against 28 women, aged between 15 and 34.
According to court documents and evidence presented at the trial on Wednesday, Atlanta-based Minal Patel, 44, owned LabSolutions LLC -- a lab enrolled with Medicare that performed sophisticated genetic tests.
