14 DAY TRIAL // Last year in September, a hacker claimed to have obtained the tax documents of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He threatened to publish the information if he didn't receive $1 million (€760,000) in Bitcoins.
He also claimed that he was willing to sell the information to anyone willing to pay him the amount. At the time, the founder of Hustler magazine, Larry Flynt, said he was willing to pay the money to get his hands on the information.
“All major news media outlets are going to be sent an encrypted copy of the most recent tax years that your company had on file since you did not have them all in a convenient electronic form. The years before 2010 will be of great interest to many,” the hacker said at the time.
“If the parties interested do not want the encrypted key released to the public to unlock these documents on September 28 of this year then payment will be necessary,” he added.
Back then, the information was considered of great value because the presidential candidate had refused to release other tax returns than the ones from 2010 and 2011.
Now, US authorities claim to have a suspect in the case, which they indicted last week for allegedly engaging in the extortion and wire fraud scheme.
The suspect is 34-year-old Michael Mancil Brown of Franklin, Tenn. He has been charged with six counts of extortion and six counts of wire fraud.
According to court documents, Brown falsely claimed to have access to the internal networks of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, from which he allegedly stole tax return documents belonging to Romney and his wife.
Prosecutors say that besides posting his ransom message on Pastebin, Brown also sent letters to various organizations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and the offices of the Republican and Democratic parties in his hometown.