Harsh Sentence

Once an employee of the Secret Service, the computer hacker Albert Gonzalez has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for credit card fraud. “The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to three cases of fraud at his trial last year. Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years for the first two cases on Thursday, and 20 years and one day on Friday for the third. The terms will run concurrently.

The judge in the third case said he had to serve the extra 24 hours because the crime had been committed when he was working for the US Secret Service as an informant, reportedly receiving as much as $75,000 a year. As part of a plea agreement, Gonzalez also agreed to hand over $1m that he had buried in his parents’ garden, a condo in his hometown of Miami, a car, a diamond ring and several expensive watches.”