Wisconsin ONLINE CHILD PREDATORS 2012: David Whitworth, 40, of Monroe, arrested and charged with production and receipt of child pornography via Internet

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced on March 15th 2012 that David Whitworth, 40, of Monroe, Wisconsin, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with production and receipt of child pornography. The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, a fine of 250.000 USD or both.

U.S. Att. William Hochul

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maura K. O’Donnell, who was handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, the defendant posed as a modeling agent online to induce minors in the Western District of New York and elsewhere to produce pornographic images of themselves, which they then forwarded to Whitworth via the Internet.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The charges are the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; Officers from the Lancaster Police Department, under the direction of Chief Gerald J. Gill, Jr.; and Officers from the Cheektowaga Police Department, under the direction of Chief David Zack.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/

California ONLINE CHILD PREDATORS 2010: Pete Andre Flores, 24, of Thornton, Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Child Pornography Charges

On March 15th, 2012, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Pete Andre Flores, 24, of Thornton, was sentenced by United States District Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. to six years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, for possessing child pornography.

US Att. Ben Wagner

According to court documents, on February 6th, 2010, an undercover LE Officer from New Hampshire was invited by Flores to use a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. The officer downloaded approximately 200 files depicting child pornography directly from Flores. On February 16th, 2010, a Sacramento FBI agent downloaded 20 files from Flores that depicted child pornography.
  
On February 18th, 2010, a federal search warrant was executed at Flores’s residence, and more than 27.300 images of child pornography were found on a Acer laptop computer belonging to Flores.

USDJ Morrison England

This case was the result of an investigation by the FBI, Sacramento Division, Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force on Internet Crimes Against Children, and the Keene Police Department in New Hampshire. Assistant United States Attorneys Michelle Prince and Ellen Endrizzi prosecuted the case.

Cybercrime Review Who is Who: Anil Kheda (Rampid Interactive Hacker)

In November 2012 Anil Kheda, a dutch National, got charged under federal constitution in the District of New Hampshire with allegedly conspiring to hack into and disable computer servers belonging to Rampid Interactive, a New Hampshire-based company that publishes and hosts a multi-player online role-playing game called “Outwar” (+75.000 active players).

From November 2007 to August 2008, Anil Kheda (the "Leader") and some additional members of the Plot, all of whom were avid “Outwar” players, accessed Rampid’s computer servers without authorization and rendered “Outwar” unplayable for days at a time.

They also used their unauthorized access to Rampid’s servers to alter user accounts, causing the restoration of suspended player accounts and the accrual of unearned game points, and to obtain a copy of all or portions of the “Outwar” computer source code, which they used to help create a competitor online game, named “Outcraft.”

The indictment also stated that Kheda and his alleged online buddies sent Rampid interstate communications threatening to continue to hack into Rampid’s computer systems unless Rampid agreed to pay them money or provide them with other benefits. Kheda claimed to have found vulnerabilities in the Rampid's network and the Outwar source code that allowed him to gain administrator access to the underlying functions of the game.

His ability to repeatedly delete a user database seems to indicate his claims were at least partially true. This lack although, caused Outwar to go down for a total of about two weeks over the nine-month stretch, causing Rampid to lose more than 100.000 USD in lost revenues, wages, hosting costs, long term loss of business, as well as the loss of exclusive use of their proprietary source code, which it had invested approximately 1.5 million USD in creating the Platform.

 According to court documents, Kheda earned approximately 10.000 USD in profits from operating “Outcraft,” which has approximately 10.000 players worldwide.

"You guys have the following three options," Kheda wrote in a December 2007 e-mail included in the federal indictment.":

1. Let me play again on my master account (with everything that was on it), and I will report everything when I come across a vulnerability. 
2. Pay me $1500 and you will never hear from me again. 
3. Don't reply to this e-mail and you are gonna wish you picked one of the other options.

During another exchange with Rampid employees, Kheda allegedly demanded he be given the name and address of a fellow hacker called Pimpster, who is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment. Kheda ultimately demanded he be given contact details for the UK juvenile after he backed out of the alleged conspiracy to hack Rampid's network, according to prosecutors.

"Pimpster may have pussed out after [an employee at Rampid] called his mom, I'll never talk to that noob snitch again," Kheda wrote, according to the indictment. "However I am still around, you guys probably thought that pimpster has been doing this all by himself, think again noobs."



What finally Sentence Kheda received (or not) is so far unknown, as i checked the Web, but came up with nothing so far. Kepping an eye on it although.