Hacker pleads guilty to $36m identity fraud

An American man has pleaded guilty to one of the largest cases of individual identity theft yet discovered, after police found huge numbers of stolen credit card files and financial data in a raid on his home.

Rogelio Hackett Jr, 26, pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit credit cards and aggravated identity theft after police found 675,000 stolen credit card details on his home computers.

Credit card investigators discovered tens of thousands of transactions using the fraudulent data, amounting to over $36m.

Hackett told investigators that he had begun stealing financial data online when he was a teenager and had been selling the information since 2002 to earn a living.

He got hold of the information by hacking into business networks and downloading credit card databases, or purchasing the information from others. Hackett used some of the data to purchase goods for resale, and actively traded the information for extra funds.

The US Department of Justice said that Hackett faces between two and 12 years in prison and fines of over $500,000.