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A pirate-website operator named Joshua Streit was charged with hacking into Major League Baseball (MLB) computer systems and trying to extort $150,000 from the league by threatening to publicize security vulnerabilities, the US Department of Justice announced yesterday.
Streit also “is alleged to have illegally streamed sports content online from MLB, the NHL, the NBA, and the NFL for his own personal profit,” the announcement said. Streit was charged in US District Court for the Southern District of New York with wire fraud, illicit digital transmission, sending interstate threats with the intent to extort, and two counts of computer intrusion. The maximum possible sentences for these counts add up to 37 years in prison, including 20 years for wire fraud, though the press release noted that “maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.”
Streit is a 30-year-old from Minnesota who is also known as Josh Brody. The pirate streaming website that he allegedly ran was called HeheStreams and operated from approximately 2017 to August 2021.
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