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For Immediate Release:  
For Further Information Contact:
August 12, 2005

Office of The Attorney General
- Peter C. Harvey, Attorney General
Division of Criminal Justice
- Vaughn L. McKoy, Director

 
Rachel Sacharow
(609) 984-1936
 
 

MIDDLESEX COUNTY 17-YEAR-OLD JUVENILE SENTENCED TO STATE PRISON FOR ONLINE HACKING SCAM

Burlington County Online Seller Lost More than $1.5 Million as Result of Theft...
 

TRENTON — Attorney General Peter C. Harvey announced that a 17-year-old Middlesex County juvenile has been sentenced to state prison after being waived up to adult court and pleading guilty to hacking into online businesses.

According to Division of Criminal Justice Director Vaughn L. McKoy, Jasmine Singh,17, Tingley Lane, Edison, Middlesex County, was ordered by Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa to serve five years in state prison and to pay restitution in the amount of $35,000. The sentence was pursuant to Singh’s guilty plea to a criminal Accusation filed by the Division of Criminal Justice. Singh pleaded guilty to two counts of computer theft (both 2nd degree).

“This sentence represents a solid victory for the online sellers and buyers,” Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said. “We have modernized our computer forensic capabilities to investigate and prosecute Internet fraud. We will continue to investigate people of all ages who seek to disrupt innocent business via the Internet and will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

At the guilty plea on May 5, Singh admitted that between July 2, 2004 and December 2, 2004, he repeatedly sabotaged a Burlington County online seller’s website that sold throw-back licensed professional athletic jerseys over the Internet by using a “bot net” to make their Internet server go offline for long periods of time. As a result of each attack, the website was essentially halted, and more than $1.5 million in site revenues were lost. Singh was arrested at his home by members of the New Jersey State Police and FBI on March 18.

A joint investigation between the New Jersey State Police, the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice - Computer Analysis & Technology Unit and the FBI determined that Singh was hired by Jason Arabo, 18, Southfield, Michigan to launch more than sixty Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, which flooded the Burlington County-based web site with data via a computer virus. Arabo was attempting to launch a competitor site, and also wanted to sell throw-back jerseys. Singh generated the series of attacks by compromising computers throughout the world with the virus. Singh then directed infected computers to send the victim company trillions of packets of data every hour.

The investigation revealed that between July and December, 2004, in addition to the Burlington County-based online site, Singh also repeatedly attacked other of Arabo’s online competitors’ sites.

Criminal Justice Director McKoy noted that the Division of Criminal Justice - Computer Analysis & Technology Unit employs a group of highly trained attorneys who prosecute online criminal cases from the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Electronic Crimes Task Force consisting of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey State Police.

The prosecution was handled by Deputy Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe who also assisted in the investigation. Supervisory Special Agent Tim Nestor, Special Agents Adam Ringhof and Patrick Dempsey of the FBI, as well as Lt. Anthony Ritter and Sgt. Scott Johnson of the New Jersey State Police handled the remarkable investigation that employed innovative investigative techniques to identify and arrest Singh. DAG Sharpe represented the Division of Criminal Justice - Computer Analysis & Technology Unit at the sentencing.

A copy of this press release can be found at http://www.njdcj.org.

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