Chicago man faces 9 months in prison for 'Celebgate' hacking
A Chicago man is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the "Celebgate" hacking scandal that resulted in dozens of nude photos of celebrities being posted online, including actress Jennifer Lawrence, model Kate Upton and U.S. soccer star Hope Solo.
Edward Majerczyk, 29, likely faces nine months in prison under a deal worked out with federal prosecutors. He pleaded guilty last September to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, a charge that carries a maximum of five years in prison.
His lawyer, Thomas Needham, said in a recent court filing that at the time Majerczyk took part in the now-infamous hack, he was "suffering from depression and looked to pornography websites and Internet chat rooms in an attempt to fill some of the voids and disappointment he was feeling in his life."
A self-described computer nerd, Majerczyk, of the Southwest Side, was accused of using a phishing scheme to illegally gain access to more than 300 Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts from November 2013 to August 2014, including at least 30 belonging to celebrities in the Los Angeles area.
According to his plea agreement, Majerczyk sent emails to victims that appeared to be from security accounts of internet service providers seeking the victims' usernames and passwords. For those who provided that private information, he then illegally accessed their email accounts and obtained "personal information including sensitive and private photographs and videos," the plea deal said.
Majerczyk was not accused of selling the material or posting any of it online himself. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said in September that the investigation into who leaked the sensitive information was ongoing.
As many as 100 celebrities were targeted as part of Celebgate, including Kirsten Dunst as well as Upton and her boyfriend, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. Many of the embarrassing and intimate photos were posted on websites like Reddit.com and 4chan.org.
Also targeted was the Oscar-winning actress Lawrence, who broke down at a meeting with federal agents in September 2014 about nude photos of her that had been splashed on the internet as part of Celebgate.
"She became very distraught and I had to stop the interview at one point because of her emotional reaction to the information being discussed," an FBI agent wrote in a court filing about the meeting with Lawrence in Los Angeles. "(She) stated she was having an anxiety attack, and was visibly shaken."
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2014, Lawrence called the breach of her privacy a "sex crime."
"I was just so afraid. I didn't know how this would affect my career," Lawrence told the magazine. "Just because I'm a public figure, just because I'm an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory."
Majerczyk has no criminal history and was given credit by prosecutors for accepting responsibility for his crime, according to his plea agreement.
Needham said in his sentencing memo that Majerczyk was "deeply affected" by the fallout of the Celebgate scandal and had to see a therapist for anxiety and panic attacks. The son of two Chicago police officers, Majerczyk was working at the time as a customer service representative for ComEd. He also has an 11-year-old son who lives with the boy's mother, Needham said.
