Cameron Harrison, aka “Kilobit,” was sentenced to 115 months in prison and $50.8 million in restitution this week after he purchased stolen credit card data and other personal information from an international fraud ring.
Harrison pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in April and was one of 55 people charged in activities pertaining to “Carder.su,” a fraud-conducting group comprised of nearly 8,000 people, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
Although the group ultimately compromised 210,000 different account numbers that led to about $50 million worth of losses, Harrison only posted on the Carder.su site 119 times in four years and possessed more than 260 compromised credit and debit card numbers, according to his sentence memorandum.
His lawyers pushed for a lower sentence than the one he received, but in the DOJ press release, Peter T. Edge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executive associate director, elaborated on the nearly 10-year sentence.
“This significant sentence is entirely fitting given that this defendant's actions and those of the larger criminal organization harmed countless innocent Americans and seriously compromised our financial system,” he said. “Criminals like this defendant who believe they can elude detection by hiding behind their computer screens here and overseas are discovering that cyberspace affords no refuge from American justice. HSI will continue to work closely with its law enforcement partners to track down these violators and see that they face the full weight of the law.”
An undercover special agent discovered Harrison's involvement in the ring after he purchased a counterfeit Georgia driver's license from the agent. During their conversations, Harrison admitted to having been a vendor of counterfeit identifications in the now-defunct “ShadowCrew” marketplace.
Of the 55 people charged in “Operation Open Market,” which targeted Carder.su, 26, have been convicted and the rest are either fugitives or awaiting trial.