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

July 20, 2009

CHESSDISCUSSION.COM WEBMASTER INDICTED FOR COMPUTER FRAUD AND AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal grand jury in San Jose indicted Gregory Alexander, of Everett, Wash., Wednesday for unauthorized access of the private email account of a member of a not-for-profit organization’s board of directors, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

According to the indictment, Alexander used a username and password belonging to Randall Hough, a member of the United States Chess Federation’s Board of Directors, to access Hough’s private email account on 34 separate occasions spanning from November 2007 to June 2008. Additionally, the indictment notes that Alexander obtained information from Hough’s account on an unspecified number of those occasions.

Alexander, 42, was arrested in San Francisco and made his initial appearance in federal court in San Jose today. He is currently out of custody on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond. Alexander's next scheduled appearance is at 9 a.m. on August 3 for a status hearing before Judge Ronald M. Whyte.

The maximum statutory penalty for each count of computer fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2) is 10 years and a fine of $250,000. The maximum statutory penalty for the count of aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1) is two years. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Richard Cheng is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Lauri Gomez and Derek Ko. The prosecution is the result of a lengthy investigation by the San Jose field office of the United States Secret Service.

Please note, an indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Alexander must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Further Information:

Case #: CR-09 00719 RMW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by email at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.

This site does not contain all press releases or court filings and is not an official record of proceedings. Please contact the Clerk of Courts for the United States District Court for official copies of documents and public information.

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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.