This is how JPMorgan hack suspect could help the US
He’s the accused mastermind of one of the biggest hacks ever. He and his crew allegedly pilfered information from more than 80 million JPMorgan Chase & Co. clients and ran online gambling, stock manipulation and money laundering schemes around the world.
Gery Shalon, charged with those crimes four years ago, has rarely appeared in court since he was extradited to the US Now it’s clear why: Shalon is helping US authorities, according to people familiar with the matter.
Such cooperation could result in anything from a lighter sentence to outright release. That would be a remarkable turnabout for a man who Loretta Lynch, then the US attorney general, accused of netting hundreds of millions of dollars from “one of the largest thefts of financial-related data in history.”
Because authorities singled out Shalon as the brazen scheme’s leader, he would have to deliver something important to chip away at his 23 counts, several of them carrying potential 20-year prison terms.
While the precise nature of his cooperation isn’t clear, Shalon intersected with worlds that later came under the glare of some of US history’s most politically charged investigations. An Israeli citizen, he allegedly teamed up with a Russian hacker who is now also in US custody, raising the prospect that Shalon could provide US prosecutors with a road map to Russian cyber crimes, how criminal hackers interact with that country’s intelligence services, or both. Other alleged Russian cybercriminals have been brought to the US and charged, among them potential cooperators.
Judging by the range of activities outlined in Shalon’s indictment, he may also be able to act as a guide into criminal spheres such as international money laundering.
A release of Shalon would be “pretty extreme,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School and former Manhattan prosecutor who isn’t involved in the case. “He must be giving up somebody who is far more culpable than him, either in this crime or in a coordinated crime, to get that deal.”
If he’s cooperating, she added, “there may be something coming down the road that will answer this riddle.”
A spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. A lawyer for Shalon didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The prospect of a light sentence for Shalon was raised recently by his father, Shota Shalelashvili, a lawmaker in the Republic of Georgia. In an interview on Georgian television last month, Shalelashvili hinted his son could soon be released from US custody after explaining how he carried out the hack and repaying “millions” in stolen money.
Shalon has been allowed to remove his home monitoring device, his father told Georgian television, indicating he was at some point allowed to move from jail to home confinement.
Because authorities singled out Shalon as the brazen scheme’s leader, he would have to deliver something important to chip away at his 23 counts