Alonzo Knowles, Bahamian computer hacker, sentenced for trying to sell stolen movie scripts, videos

A Bahamian computer hacker who targeted Hollywood celebrities and then bragged about his exploits while awaiting sentencing was ordered this week to spend five years in U.S. federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer described Alonzo Knowles at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing in Manhattan as having committed “deeply troubling” crimes accomplished by using his intellect for “dark and lawless ends,” The New York Times reported.

Knowles, 24, was arrested in December 2015 after he flew to New York City in order to sell more than a dozen stolen movie and television scripts to an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a potential buyer.

When he pleaded guilty six months later to criminal copyright infringement and identity theft, he admitted breaching the internet accounts of various unnamed entertainment, sports and media personalities and stealing those scripts as well as some of his victim’s intimate photographs and videos.

“What I did was wrong,” Knowles acknowledged at Tuesday’s hearing, the AP reported. “I could have ruined people’s lives.”

Knowles gained unwanted attention from prosecutors while behind bars by using a prison-monitored email service to boast about his crimes and plot ways to profit from them upon his release.

In the emails, Knowles said he planned to detail his exploits in a book that he’d sell for $35 and promote by hacking into other people’s Twitter accounts.

“When i get out im gon shake up hollywood for real!” Knowles wrote in one email.

“This gonna be the most talked about thing on tv,” he wrote, adding, “Eat a steak for me tomorrow.”

Judge Engelmayer said Tuesday that Knowles’s messages were “devoid of any remorse,” and demonstrated the hacker “would be a clear and present danger to commit the very same crime again” if released prematurely, New York Times reported.

“Unavoidably, Mr. Knowles,” he added, “the public has a significant interest in your being behind bars in federal prison where you have no access to the internet and no practical ability to do such harm.

“So far, the criminal justice system has totally failed to get your attention,” he added, according to The Associated Press.

The five-year prison sentence handed down by Judge Engelmayer is nearly double the amount previously suggested by the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and half the 10-year maximum.

“Alonzo Knowles hacked into the private emails of entertainment and sports celebrities, stole personal information and property, including unreleased movie and television scripts, and attempted to sell them to the highest bidder,” Mr. Bharara said in a statement following Tuesday’s hearing. “For his frightful violation of privacy, Knowles has been sentenced to substantial term of imprisonment.”