14 DAY TRIAL // The only member of the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) hacking crew the US has managed to arrest pleaded guilty to several charges yesterday in a US court and is now awaiting sentencing.
The hacker risks up to five years in jail for conspiring to receive extortion proceeds and conspiring to unlawfully access computers.
His name is Peter Romar, also known as Pierre Romar, a 36-year-old Syrian who lived in Germany, from where he was extradited to the US in May. The hacker was arrested in March after the US pressed official charges against all SEA members.
Romar was the Syrian Electronic Army's banker
Romar was one of the group's three members, but he was not an actual hacker, acting more like a banker for the group.
SEA's main members are Ahmad Umar Agha, 22, from Syria, known as "Th3 Pro," and Firas Dardar, 27, living in Homs, Syria, known as "The Shadow."
Dardar and Agha started the group in 2011 and were on-call hackers for al-Assad's regime, carrying cyber-attacks against entities perceived as being against the President.
The list included US media outlets, dissidents, foreign governments, and more. On their free time, the group also hacked foreign companies, stole their data, and held it for ransom.
They would ask companies to pay or they'd release private documents on the Internet or to their business rivals.
Romar relayed money transfers to the group's actual hackers
Because of economic sanctions imposed on Syria by several western countries, some extorted companies couldn't make payments to the hackers.
This is where Romar, a German citizen, came in. Since 2013, Romar acted as a liaison between the group and the extorted companies, receiving money in his accounts and then transferring the funds to his Syrian counterparts.
At the time of writing, the two other Syrian Electronic Army hackers are still at large, believed to be living in Syria.