Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of Los Angeles, California and the U.S.

April 14, 2008

DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUILTY TO MAKING UNAUTHORIZED GRADE CHANGES AT FRESNO STATE

FRESNO, Calif.—United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that JOHN ESCALERA, 29, of Fresno, and GUSTAVO RAZO, JR., 28, of Pasenda, California, pleaded guilty this morning before United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud and identity theft related to a grade-changing scheme involving California State University, Fresno.

The case was the result of an extensive investigation conducted by the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Fresno State Police Department. The FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force is made up of the FBI, Fresno Police Department, Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, California Department of Justice, and United States Secret Service.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Stanley A. Boone, who is prosecuting this case, ESCALERA, a student and employee of Fresno State, hacked into an unauthorized area of the university’s computer system in order to acquire names and passwords of individuals who had grade changing authority. After acquiring this data and using a software program that deciphered user names and passwords, ESCALERA was able to acquire the actual user names and accompanying passwords. ESCALERA then entered the university’s computer system and made grade changes for himself and a friend, RAZO. RAZO paid ESCALERA for making the grade change. The intrusion was discovered by Fresno State while performing an audit on their grading software.

Sentencing for defendant RAZO is set for July 3, 2008 and defendant ESCALERA for August 22, 2008.

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CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER

JOSEPH SHEMARIA

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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of Los Angeles, California and the U.S.