June 11, 2008
For more information contact:
Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Dixie A. Morrow (850) 444-4000
INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER “HACKER” SENTENCED TO MORE THAN THREE YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
Pensacola, Florida - Gregory R. Miller, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced today the sentencing of Robert Matthew Bentley, 21, Panama City, Florida, for conspiring to commit and committing computer fraud. United States District Judge Richard Smoak sentenced Bentley to 41 months in prison to be followed by three years supervised release. Bentley was also ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution.
Bentley was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pensacola, Florida in November 2007. The case originated in December 2006 when the London Metropolitan Police (“The Met”) Computer Crime Unit requested assistance from the United States Secret Service after European representatives of the United States-based “Newell Rubbermaid” Corporation and at least one other European-based company contacted “The Met” to report a computer intrusion against the companies’ European networks. The indictment resulted from a multi-year criminal investigation by the United States Secret Service, primarily involving the London (England) Resident Office, the Paris (France) Field Office, the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Field Office, the Seattle (Washington) Field Office, the Jacksonville (Florida) Field Office, the Tallahassee (Florida) Resident Office, the Panama City (Florida) Field Office, the Santa Ana (California) Resident Office, the Los Angeles (California) Field Office, and the Wilmington (Delaware) Field Office. Secret Service worked the investigation together with the Finland National Bureau of Investigation, the London Metropolitan Police, the Westminster (California) Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Field Office.
Bentley agreed to a detailed factual summary filed at the time of his guilty plea outlining his role in the computer intrusions. Bentley and other unnamed co-conspirators infected hundreds of computers in Europe with “adware” that cost tens of thousands of dollars to detect and neutralize. Bentley (and others still under investigation) received payment through a Western European-based operation called “Dollar Revenue” for these unauthorized intrusions and placement of the adware. Computers in the Northern District of Florida were used to accomplish the intrusions and to receive payment.
United States Attorney Miller observed, “The sentencing of Bentley marks the successful conclusion of a complex international investigation. His indictment, conviction, and sentence could not have been achieved without the continuing and outstanding cooperation of the many participating law enforcement agencies – each of which focused their energies on detecting and responding to “botnets” – a series of computers covertly controlled by Bentley and his co-conspirators to accomplish the intrusion of victim computer systems.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas P. (Tom) Swaim of the Pensacola Division.