14 DAY TRIAL // A former Barclays network security manager named Humza Zaman was sentenced to 46 months in prison for money-laundering charges in connection with the data breaches at TJX, Heartland Payment Systems and other companies. His role was to receive stolen money on behalf of Albert Gonzales, the notorious hacker who masterminded the hits.
Humza Zaman, 33, is the second individual to be convicted for his involvement in what is considered the largest identity-theft case in the U.S. history. "Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin," as Gonzales himself named it, resulted in over 100 million credit and debit accounts being compromised by hacking into the computer networks of major retail stores like T.J. Maxx, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority or Forever 21.
Wired reports that, according to Zaman's own account, he was introduced to Albert Gonzales in 2004 by Stephen Watt, a software engineer working for Morgan Stanley at the time. Watt was sentenced back in December to two years in prison for writing one of the main computer programs used by Gonzales to pull off the hacks.
"Zaman’s principal involvement occurred during the money laundering stage of the operation," the prosecution wrote in the sentencing memorandum. This stage concerned the money received by Albert Gonzales from his partners located overseas. The cash was first routed through a Latvian bank account, then transferred to accounts set up with U.S. banks under fake names.
Zaman picked up between $600,000 and $800,000 for Gonzales in exchange for a 10% commission, but he also used his position at Barclays to steal logs from ATMs. Records show that he was legally earning over $130,000 per year from his employer, but apparently this wasn't enough to cover his partying lifestyle and drug habit.
Zaman was convicted on Thursday in Boston and the judge opted for the full sentence recommended by prosecutors. In addition to spending the next 46 months in prison and another three years on supervised release, the former network security engineer was also ordered to pay a fine of $75,000.