AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885

October 16, 2006

FLORIDA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO HACKING AND DEFACING WEB SITES

GREENBELT, Maryland - Matthew Tatem, age 34, of Palm Beach Garden, Florida pleaded guilty today to intentionally damaging a computer used in interstate commerce, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to the statement of facts provided to the court as part of the plea agreement, Tatem and his wife purchased a vehicle on February 26, 2005 from the Northlake Chrysler car dealership in Lake Park, Florida. The financing for the vehicle sale fell through. On May 9, 2005 the Tatems came to the dealership and purchased the vehicle with cash. Later that afternoon, Tatem accessed the car dealership’s web site and deleted files that were necessary for the web site to function properly. The web site was hosted and maintained by a computer server owned and operated by eDealertools, Inc., located in Rockville, Maryland. eDealertools became aware of this problem about 10 minutes after the intrusion and was able to restore the web site approximately three hours later.

That same evening Tatem changed the home page for the car dealership’s web site and posted a new message onto the web site that read “DON’T BUY A CAR FROM THIS COMPANY THEY ARE SCUMBAGS.” The message was also posted to 170 additional car dealership web pages that were hosted by eDealertools.

Tatem acknowledged to FBI agents that he was upset with Northlake Chrysler after the vehicle purchase.

Tatem faces a maximum sentence of 10 years incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow has scheduled sentencing for January 22, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the investigative work performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Rosenstein also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Foreman, who is prosecuting the case.