Anonymous hacker 'Sabu' walks free after aiding US authorities

Hacker 'Sabu', right, was once thought of as a leader of the looseknit collective Anonymous. Reuters

Benjamin Weiser

The New York man who helped US authorities infiltrate the shadowy world of computer hacking and disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks on targets that included the United States military, courts and private companies was given a greatly reduced sentence on Tuesday of time served, and was allowed to walk free.

Federal prosecutors had sought leniency for the hacker, Hector Xavier Monsegur, citing what they called his 'extraordinary cooperation' in helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation take down an aggressive group of hackers who were part of the collective Anonymous, of which he was a member, and its splinter groups, which had taken credit for attacking government and corporate websites.

Mr. Monsegur's information, the authorities said, led to the arrest of eight 'major co-conspirators,' including Jeremy Hammond, whom the F.B.I. had called its top 'cybercriminal target' and who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in November.

The judge, Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court, gave Mr. Monsegur time served; he had spent seven months in custody in 2012.

The advisory federal sentencing guidelines had called for a sentence of roughly 21 to 26 years, although prosecutors had asked that he receive a substantially lower sentence, saying he had been 'an extremely valuable and productive cooperator,' whose information was 'consistently reliable and complete, corroborated by documents and electronic files, as well as by statements from other witnesses.'

In seeking leniency, the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Mr. Monsegur had begun cooperating immediately upon being confronted by the F.B.I. in 2011, and that he was vilified online by supporters of Anonymous and was repeatedly 'approached on the street and threatened or menaced about his cooperation once it became publicly known' in 2012.

There was such concern about the threats that the government relocated Mr. Monsegur and certain members of his family, prosecutors told Judge Preska in a memorandum filed last week.

Mr. Monsegur, 30, who as a youth lived in the Jacob Riis housing project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, pleaded guilty in August 2011 to 12 counts of hacking conspiracy, identify theft and other charges.

He had been released on bail, but his bail was revoked in May 2012 after he made 'unauthorized online postings,' the government has said, without elaborating on what they were.

He served seven months in prison and was again released on bail in December 18, 2012; he has remained free since then.