Man agrees to plead guilty in hacking case

LOS ANGELES — An Illinois man accused of breaking into the Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts of celebrities to obtain their private photos and videos has agreed to plead guilty to a felony computer hacking charge, prosecutors said on Friday.

Edward Majerczyk, 28, facing up to five years in prison, is the second man charged in a federal investigation into the leaks of nude photos of several Hollywood actresses, including Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, in September 2014.

According to a plea agreement signed by Majerczyk, he illegally accessed Apple iCloud and Google Gmail accounts belonging to more than 300 people, using an email “phishing” ploy to obtain their user names and passwords.

Through this scheme, Majerczyk was able to access full iCloud backups belonging to numerous victims, including at least 30 celebrities, many of whom reside in the Los Angeles area, the plea agreement stated.

“Many of these backups contained sensitive and private photographs and videos,” it said.

Under his deal with federal prosecutors, Majerczyk, a Chicago resident, will formally plead guilty in US District Court in Illinois to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, according to the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

A 36-year-old Pennsylvania man, Ryan Collins, pleaded guilty in March to the same offense in a case stemming from the same investigation.

Like Collins, federal authorities said they had found no evidence linking Majerczyk to actual public circulation of any of the photos to which he gained access.