NJ man allegedly steals domain name and sells it to NBA player August 3, 2009
Posted by tsclaw2209 in News.Tags: computer crime, New Jersey, News
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Daniel Goncalves of Union Township, New Jersey is charged with hacking into the online account belonging to owner of the P2P.com domain name. He allegedly then shifted ownership to himself and resold the Web site address on eBay to Los Angeles Clippers power forward Mark Madsen. The price was allegedly $100,000.
He faces felony charges of theft by unlawful taking or deception, identity theft, and computer theft. Even if he doesn’t have a record, prison time is mandatory if convicted. The initial offer will be either a 5 or 3 flat.
Hopefully, he gets a good attorney that actually knows how to turn on a computer. It sounds like a very interesting case with some unique defense issues. Story is here.
White Collar Crime News 
What sorts of interesting defenses does he have?
Without looking at the discovery, I can’t get into all of them but there are several. I’m sure he has another side to all of this as, if the Gov’s story is true, it would be impossible to get away with this. One defense, if you can call it that, is that this case is going to be a real pain in the ass to bring to trial, especially with a NBA player involved. If he didn’t make a statement, they may not be able to link all of this to him 100%. Does he live with anyone? Was his wifi secure? Did they take this computer? If not, how can they prove it wasn’t hacked into? In any computer crime case, you have to put the defendant behind the keyboard which is often difficult to do.
There’s no witnesses and possible grounds for suppression…
Interesting to see what the grand jury transcipts look like as well as the opening remarks…
Sounds like similar defenses as to kiddy porn prosecutions.