Achievement

By CHAD BRAY

A computer hacker was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty in February to hacking into Internet-phone networks and reselling those services for a profit.

Edwin Andres Pena, 27 years old, transmitted more than 10 million minutes of unauthorized Web-based telephone calls, which resulted in the loss of more than $1.4 million to telecommunications companies, prosecutors said.

Mr. Pena, a Venezuelan citizen, fled the U.S. after his initial arrest in 2006 and was apprehended in Mexico in February 2009, prosecutors said. He was extradited to the U.S. and pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer hacking and wire fraud in February.

"Theft is theft whether you rob a bank or hack into somebody else's network and steal their services," said Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney in Newark.

A lawyer for Mr. Pena didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

Prosecutors alleged Mr. Pena masterminded a scheme to hack into Voice over Internet Protocol networks and then resell those services to unsuspecting customers while purporting to be a legitimate wholesaler of those services. Prosecutors claim Mr. Pena is the first person to be charged with carrying out such a scheme.

Mr. Pena enlisted the help of others, including Robert Moore, a professional hacker from Spokane, Wash., to carry out the scheme, prosecutors said. Mr. Moore was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in March 2007 to conspiracy.

Prosecutors said Mr. Pena purchased real estate, cars and a 40-foot motor boat in order to disguise money he obtained from the scheme, including a 2004 BMW M4. On Monday, he was ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.

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Some people think I am against ALL ethnic minorities and ALL people who break any law. If true, this story would not even be appearing here, I would have glanced at it, said good, and moved on.

Okay, mister Pena is not British or Irish. I don't know if he's from Spain, the U.S., or Latin America. It doesn't matter, he's not identified as an illegal immigrant, so I have no gripes about his ethnicity.

He got caught doing something criminal, he cleverly used his brains to commit a non-violent, white-collar crime in which he took a large sum of money from the very profitable phone companies. He pled guilty. It was entirely reasonable and proper that he should forfeit his ill-gotten gains and reimburse the phone companies.

It was a travesty of justice that he should be locked up for 10 years. He is not a threat to society. He is a skilled Information Technology consultant with a specialization in security vulnerabilities. The corporate world needs more people like him. Meanwhile, he sits in prison with hardened criminals. thanks to the Mexican police, who can't or won't keep their country free of drug runners.

I think red-light runners and speeders should do jail time - they are showing disregard for the lives of their potential accident victims. Likewise, Hollywood personalities who break their parole term by doing drugs 2 weeks after being set free and any other clown who thoughtlessly endangers the life of another human for their own selfish or stupid reason.

I think a white-collar criminal who preys on the poor and takes the grocery money from a poor old widow should go to jail. I think that should include members of the federal, state and local government acting through their taxing and other financial authorities when they force that widow to choose between needed medicine or groceries.

But I think a man like mister Pena, who demonstrated the finest qualities of entrepreneurial free-market capitalism, who found his niche in the business world and made his fortune, should be encouraged and praised.