A former Seattle tech sector employee who was found guilty of several charges related to a hack of Capital One bank and other businesses in 2019 was sentenced to time served five years of probation on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik claimed it would have been challenging for the former Amazon software engineer to serve time in jail “because of her mental health and transgender status.”
According to Fox 13 Seattle, 37-year-old Paige Thompson was found guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer, and causing damage to a protected computer by a Seattle jury in June. Thompson was acquitted of access device fraud and identity theft. The breach resulted in Capital One agreeing to a $190 million settlement with clients whose personal information was compromised. The Treasury Department also fined the company $80 million for failure to secure the data.
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said the prosecution asked for Thompson to serve seven years in prison and that he was “very disappointed” with the sentence. He added, “This is not what justice looks like.” Additionally, Brown explained, “Ms. Thompson’s hacking and theft of information of 100 million people did more than $250 million in damage to companies and individuals. Her cybercrimes created anxiety for millions of people who are justifiably concerned about their private information. This conduct deserves a more significant sanction.”
In court documents, Thompson’s attorneys argued that “there is no credible or direct evidence that a single person’s identity was misused.” They also claimed that Thompson had mental health concerns and never planned to benefit from the information collected. However, federal authorities contend that Thompson stole the data and illegally installed software on servers to steal computing power for cryptocurrency mining.
Thompson was arrested in July 2019 and remained there until November 2019. At a hearing in December, the amount of restitution Thompson must provide the victims will be decided.
