A Minnesota man has been charged with extortion and illegally streaming copyrighted content from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.
Joshua Streit, also known as Josh Brody, allegedly hacked into the leagues’ computer systems and operated a website that streamed copyrighted content for his own personal profit, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. The website allegedly ran from around 2017 to August 2021.
Federal prosecutors charged a 30-year-old Minnesota man with illegally streaming sports games from sites including Major League Baseball and then attempting to extort the league after he hacked its website https://t.co/YCKOutkRW3
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 28, 2021
Streit allegedly gained access to the copyrighted materials on the sports leagues’ websites through “misappropriated login credentials” from real user accounts, according to the DOJ. (RELATED: Colonial Pipeline Hacker Group Will Reportedly Shut Down Its Operations)
“Thanks to this Office’s teamwork with all four major American sports leagues and the FBI, Streit has struck out on his illegal streaming and extortion scheme,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in the press release.
Streit is also accused of extorting $150,000 from the MLB after threatening to publicize the MLB’s vulnerabilities in its online infrastructure, according to the DOJ. One of the leagues victimized by Streit’s illegal streaming lost approximately $3 million.
The U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.