Computer Hacker Who Jumped Bail Gets 41 Months Crime: Justin Petersen rigged
radio contests and cracked bank security. 'Special skills' may have had role
in sentencing.

Los Angeles Times (LT) - TUESDAY November 28, 1995
By: LESLIE BERGER; TIMES STAFF WRITER
Edition: Valley Edition
Section: Metro
Page: 5  Pt. B
Word Count: 791


Convicted computer hacker Justin Tanner Petersen--who used the handle "Agent
Steal," took part in a scheme to rig lucrative radio station contests and
admitted to illegally possessing 40 passwords to various financial
accounts--was ordered Monday to serve 41 months in federal prison, the
second-stiffest sentence ever meted out for similar cyber-crimes.

Petersen, 35, was also placed on three years' supervised release once he
leaves prison; was ordered to use computers for employment only, and to pay
more than $40,000 in restitution to his corporate victims, whose access codes
and other confidential information were stolen via computer.

In sentencing Petersen in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Judge Stephen
V. Wilson called him "a bad apple" whose talent had been ill-used.

Citing the old adage that "an accountant's pen can do more harm than a
crowbar and a hammer," Wilson lamented that in an age when more and more
confidential information is being stored in computers, "someone like Mr.
Petersen can do even more harm than an accountant's pen."

Petersen's lawyer, Jay L. Lichtman, said he planned to appeal the sentence,
which he says was unfairly enhanced by two special circumstances invoked by
federal prosecutors: first, that Petersen had used "special skills" in
committing his crimes and second, that he fled while on bail, and while
helping the federal government pursue cases against other hackers.

"Obviously, they were not pleased he absconded," Lichtman said after the
sentencing.

In a brief statement to the court, a rumpled and ponytailed Petersen told
Wilson: "I'd like to apologize to the companies I victimized and to the
government . . . and the FBI for the problems I created."

Petersen fled in October, 1993, after cooperating with the federal
government for two years following his 1991 arrest in Texas. He was
re-arrested in Los Angeles in August, 1994, and has been in federal custody
since then.

Lichtman said Petersen went underground because federal agents were
threatening to charge him with additional computer crimes, which Petersen
claims he committed to raise the money to buy computer equipment to help him
track down an unidentified fugitive hacker who was harassing him and his
family because he was workking with the government.

Petersen initially gained notoriety in the late 1980s, when he and convicted
hacker Kevin Poulsen rigged the telephone lines to three Los Angeles radio
stations, enabling them to win two Porsches, two trips to Hawaii and
thousands of dollars in the station's contests.

After his arrest in Texas, where he was charged with several hacking crimes, 
Petersen agreed to help federal agents in their pursuit of other hackers, whom 
Lichtman and Assistant U.S. Atty. David J. Schindler declined to name on 
Monday.

But in the midst of his cooperation with the government, while Petersen
supported himself by promoting trendy nightclubs in the San Fernando Valley 
and Hollywood, he disappeared.

He has since admitted that before he became a fugitive, he conspired to
transfer $150,000 from Heller Financial in Glendale to the Union Bank
account of an unidentified third party in Bellflower. 

Schindler declined to discuss the case further on Monday, saying only that
no charges had been filed against the holder of the Union Bank account that
received the money. A number of hackers are under investigation, he said.

Whether Petersen had higher motives for the illegal money transfer and was
"worthy of a break," as Judge Wilson put it, occupied much of the discussion
in court Monday. Lichtman argued strenuously that his client had a
compelling reason for skipping bail and disappearing and did not deserve
additional prison time.

Later, Lichtman said Petersen and those close to him may never have been
harassed by the other hacker if he had not agreed to work with the government.

But Wilson ultimately agreed with the U.S. attorney's office that Petersen's
sentence should be lengthened because of his flight, particularly after he
"thumbed his nose at the government" that had initially offered him a deal
for his cooperation.

"Here's a person," Wilson said, "who's in the middle of a sweetheart deal
and then absconds and commits a bunch more of the same crimes."

The longest prison sentence ever received by a hacker is being served by
Poulsen, who was recently ordered to spend 51 months in a federal
penitentiary for a series of computer crimes, including the radio contest
rigging. Because of the time he's already served--Poulsen has been in
custody since 1991--he is expected to be released by the end of May.