Former Employee Sentenced for Wire Fraud

HOUSTON – A 28-year-old former employee of BP America Inc. has been ordered to federal prison for attempting to extort money from the company, announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick. George Koutsostamatis pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud April 16, 2018. 

Today, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered Koutsostamatis to serve 27 months in federal prison and furter ordered he pay $552,651.00 in restitution. Koutsostamatis will also serve three years of supervised release following completion of his prison term.

Koutsostamatis admitted that in June 2017 he sent an email to BP falsely claiming that he had infiltrated the company’s computer network system and obtained the personal information of BP employees and their families. He threatened to release internal documents and the personal identifying information if BP did not pay him 125 bitcoins. In truth, Koutsostamatis obtained BP documents while employed there.

Koutsostamatis is on bond pending his reporting date to the bureau of prisons.

The FBI Houston Cyber Task Force investigated this case. The FBI Houston Cyber Task Force is a multi-agency task force responsible for investigating, pursuing and defeating cyber criminals who seek to exploit our nation’s most significant computer systems, networks and critical infrastructure. The Houston field office of the FBI led the investigation with assistance from U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Houston and Chicago, FBI – Chicago field office and the National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rodolfo Ramirez is prosecuting the case.