The Tribune

A BAHAMIAN who pleaded guilty to hacking over 100 celebrities and stealing unreleased movie and TV scripts, social security numbers and private sex videos, is reportedly planning to write a book on celebrity secrets.

Alonzo Knowles, of Freeport, Grand Bahama, had been scheduled to be sentenced yesterday in a Manhattan court for hacking into celebrity email accounts but it was adjourned until September 30. Knowles could face up to 33 months in prison for cyber crime.

According to a report by TMZ, a leading entertainment website, 24-year-old Knowles has bragged to inmates that he has more knowledge and content than what was leaked online. While prosecutors were ready to ask for a lighter sentence if Knowles gave up his computer, he has refused and chosen to stay longer in prison to finish his book that will make him rich, TMZ reported, citing documents files by the US Attorney.

“Yo, when I get out dog, I’m going to be a millionaire dog, trust me when I say that ... I’m gonna be rich as hell,” legal documents say Knowles told his brother.

Prosecutors were reportedly looking to ask the judge to impose a harsher sentence than provided by federal guidelines, as Knowles shows no remorse over his actions. In a sentencing memo filed on Monday, prosecutors said that Knowles had a document on his laptop that contained the phone numbers and email addresses of at least 130 celebrities but has not forfeited the computer. “Knowles’ refusal to forfeit his computer demonstrates his failure to accept responsibility for the criminal conduct to which he has pled guilty,” prosecutors wrote.

In a response, Knowles’ lawyer claimed the boasts were only “escapist fantasies of an impecunious young man sitting in a foreign jail ... There is no evidence that Mr Knowles has the means or intention to act on his big-talk and at least one message the government quotes is clearly a joke,” the attorney wrote.

In May, Knowles pleaded guilty to hacking over 100 celebrities and stealing unreleased movie and TV scripts, social security numbers and private sex videos.

Prosecutors said the hacks could have caused great harm to networks and movie studios if Knowles had succeeded in selling them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Knowles pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal copyright infringement and identity theft charges, bringing a speedy conclusion to a case that resulted in his December, 2015, arrest in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said he was peddling personal information from at least 130 celebrities in the entertainment, sports and media industries and claimed he also could sell private sexually explicit photographs and videos.

Knowles flew from the Bahamas to New York City to sell 15 scripts and personal information on several celebrities for $80,000 to a law enforcement agent posing as an interested buyer. Prosecutors said he showed the agent sexually explicit materials of one celebrity as he revealed samples of materials he hoped to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The government said the investigation began after Knowles contacted a radio show host offering to sell scripts to a popular television show. The host contacted the show and the network, and those entities contacted law enforcement.

As part of the plea, Knowles also agreed to forfeit 25 unpublished TV and movie scripts, along with unpublished music. He has remained incarcerated since his arrest. The celebrities and the TV shows have not been identified.

At an earlier hearing, Assistant US Attorney Kristy Greenberg said prosecutors had reached out to television and movie studios and learned that the scripts had great value, particularly scripts of one network’s top show. She said that after substantial production costs, networks would have been left deciding whether to scrap programmes and start fresh or whether “to continue knowing that the viewership would be down because the secrets are out”.

At the same hearing, Judge Paul A Engelmayer indicated he took the crime seriously, saying it was alleged Knowles proposed to sell “life-changing, private information” belonging to a large number of people.

Prosecutors say Knowles - who called himself Jeff Moxey - stole the information by infecting the computers of victims with a virus or by falsely notifying them through social networks that their computers had been hacked and telling them they need to provide their login credentials to undo the harm.