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23 August 2012, 11:52

Sabu gets six months of freedom in exchange for cooperation

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Anonymous Xavier Monsegur, also known as "Sabu", was expected to be sentenced this month by US courts after pleading guilty to 12 counts of "computer hacking conspiracies" last August. Sabu is believed to have been the leader of the Anonymous off-shoot LulzSec, but after his arrest he cooperated with the FBI, so much so that now the authorities have applied for and received a six month adjournment of his sentencing. According to a Wired report, in a letter to the judge, the US Department of Justice said this delay was "in light of the defendant's ongoing cooperation with the Government".

Monsegur's cooperation to date has led to the arrest of LulzSec leaders including Jake Davies, also known as "Topiary", and the arrest of Ryan Cleary who broke bail conditions by communicating with Monsegur. Davies and Cleary both pleaded guilty in June to DDoS attacks on the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the National Health Service, News International, Sony, Nintendo and others.

Cooperation for Monsegur included working undercover for the FBI and acting as a rallying point for a number of Lulzsec hackers. How Monsegur is cooperating currently with the authorities, given the arrests to date, is not obvious. Monsegur will return to court in March 2013 for sentencing. It is unclear what the Department of Justice will recommend as a sentence though – the theoretical maximum for his offences is 124 years.

(djwm)

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