Edward Majerczyk appeared in federal court Tuesday where he admitted his role in a hacking scandal involving dozens of nude celebrity photos being leaked online in 2014.
The hack job included personal photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence, model Kate Upton and U.S. women’s soccer star Hope Solo, as well as many others.
Jennifer Lawrence was one of the celebrity victims in the hack. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Majerczyk plead guilty to one count of “unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information,” in court Tuesday the Chicago Tribune reports. The self-described computer nerd told the federal court judge he learned how to pull off the hack “from another individual” on the internet, according to the Tribune.
The 29-year-old Majerczyk then admitted to targeting celebrities by “going through their personal information and downloading ‘sensitive images’,” the Tribune reports.
(Photo: ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Majerczyk’s lawyer, Thomas Needham, told the judge there was no evidence “of any effort by my client to sell or disseminate” any of the images. Needham claimed his hacking was simply for his client’s “own personal satisfaction and enjoyment.”
Needham also told reporters Majerczyk is “intensely private and asked him not to comment further on the case,” according to the Tribune.
Majerczyk was accused of illegally gaining access to over “300 Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts from November 2013 to August 2014,” at least 30 of which belonged to celebrities or public figures. (RELATED: Hacker Who Was Part Of Massive Nude Celebrity Leak Arrested)
Majerczyk is just one of the hackers in the “Celebgate” hack that targeted as many as 100 celebrities. The illegally obtained photos and videos were “posted on websites like Reddit.com and 4chan.org,” the Tribune reports.
Perhaps the most outspoken celebrity victim of the hacking scheme was Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence had an anxiety attack during a meeting with federal agents following the leak in September of 2014.
Jennifer Lawrence. (Photo: Splash News)
Lawrence discussed the “Celebgate” scandal in a Vanity Fair interview in which she called the violation of her privacy a “sex crime.” She didn’t hold anything back in the interview.
Federal authorities traced the IP addresses of “several computers used in the Celebgate hack to a nondescript apartment building in Chicago,” where Majerczyk lived with his mother, the court records show.
The affidavit stated that Majerczyk “either accessed or attempted to hack 22 email accounts from his computer, including several ‘high-profile actresses in the entertainment industry’,” the Tribune reports. “Computer records also showed that an Apple IPad registered to Majerczyk’s address was used to set up one of the phishing accounts later emailed to some of the celebrities.”
Majerczyk does not have any criminal history and was allegedly “given credit by prosecutors for accepting responsibility for his crime,” according to his plea agreement.
Prosecutors agreed to seek a nine-month prison sentence for Majerczyk. His sentencing is set for Jan. 10.
