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Hacker Monsegur aka Sabu's Plea Agreement Released

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Fri Mar 09, 2012 at 04:22:46 PM EST
Tags: Sabu, Monsegur, Anonymous, LulzSec (all tags)
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Thanks to Reuters legal correspondent Basil Katz for publishing the plea agreement and transcript of guilty plea hearing for Anonymous/LulzSec hacker-turned-informant Hector Monsegur, aka Sabu.

Sabu's plea agreement is "global", meaning it is binding on all 94 U.S. Attorney's offices. No other federal district can charge him with other crimes (excluding criminal tax violations, as are typically excluded.)

Sabu won't be federally charged for any other past crimes he voluntarily disclosed, although the court can consider them as relevant conduct at sentencing. These include attempts to sell pounds of pot, hooking up buyers of marijuana and prescription drugs to potential sellers from 2009 to 2011, racking up $15,000 worth of unauthorized charges on his employer's credit card, purchase of stolen jewelry and electronics, and possession of a handgun. And any other uncharged hacking offenses committed between 1999 and 2010. [More...]

There's been speculation that Sabu may have tried to warn some people or help them while he was cooperating -- such as by passing along passwords to access hacked files (See Sabu and Havittaja chatlog on Jan. 24.) I doubt it. The plea agreement contains this sentence:

Moreover, any assistance the defendant may provide to federal criminal investigators shall be pursuant to the specific instructions and control of this Office and designated investigators.

If he violate any provision of the Agreement, he can be prosecuted for all offenses of which the Government has knowledge, including perjury and obstruction of justice. It can use his statements made during cooperation against him, and it doesn't have to file a motion to reduce his sentence -- and he can't withdraw his guilty plea.

In addition, if the Government believes he has violated any term of his agreement, it can move to revoke his bail without notice and he has to consent to it.

In other words, anything he does under the guise of cooperation must be pursuant to direction of his handlers or his deal is off.