14 DAY TRIAL // The trial against the PayPal 14, the group of men and women who participated in Anonymous’ distributed denial-of-service attack against PayPal in 2010, took place on Thursday. Most of them have pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges, but they’ll likely avoid jail time.
Alexa O’Brien has closely followed the trial. She reports on The Daily Beast that 11 of the suspects have entered a plea deal and agreed to plead guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges. However, the sentencing has been scheduled for December 4, 2014.
If they don’t commit any other crimes until then, the prosecution has agreed to drop the felony counts and recommend a sentence of 1-3 years probation for the misdemeanor charge. Each of them will also have to pay $5,600 (€4,000) in restitution to PayPal.
The 11 individuals have pleaded guilty to a felony count under the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Some of them to intentional damage to a protected computer, while others to conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer.
Two other suspects have pleaded guilty only to the misdemeanor charges. They will spend up to 90 days in jail.
The case of the last PayPal 14 defendants is being handled separately.
PayPal noted that it had lost $5.5 million (€4 million) due to the attack launched by Anonymous after the payment processor cut off donations to WikiLeaks. However, it appears that the company will only get around $80,000 (€58,000).
On the other hand, it’s worth noting that, a couple of days before the trial, Pierre Omidyar, the founder and chairman of eBay, noted that the PayPal 14 should not be held accountable for the actions of all the individuals who took part in the attack.