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WASHINGTON: Two Malaysian businessmen implicated by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in a hacking scandal face 23 charges, including identity theft and money laundering.
According to a statement from the Justice Department, Wong Ong Hua, 46, and Ling Yang Ching, 32, were also charged with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and false registration of domain names.
The United States seeks to extradite the duo.
The crimes carry penalties of between five and 20 years in prison. If convicted of false domain name registration, your maximum prison terms can be increased by up to seven years.
The Justice Department said the couple allegedly conspired with several hackers, including two from China, to profit from criminal hacking by video game companies.
It alleged that they operated through a Malaysian company called SEA Gamer Mall, founded by Wong, through a pattern of activities involving computer intrusion crimes targeting video game companies in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
US Deputy Attorney General for Homeland Security John Demers said yesterday that the Malaysian defendants were in custody, but would likely oppose extradition. However, the statement did not say in whose custody they are being detained.
The Justice Department said it had obtained search warrants this month, resulting in the seizure of hundreds of “dead-end” accounts, servers, domain names and web pages used by suspected hackers to mislead data on their victims.
He said that Microsoft Corp had developed measures to block hackers and that the company’s actions “were an important part” of the overall US effort to neutralize them.
