In December 2011, Anonymous-linked hackers breached Austin-based private intelligence company Stratfor and obtained millions of emails, including authentication information for thousands of credit cards. The material was later shared with WikiLeaks. Barrett Brown, who was not the hacker and did not know how to code, posted in a chat a link to documents already circulating online and helped Project PM researchers examine intelligence-contractor files. Brown also urged that material potentially endangering activists be redacted, but prosecutors alleged that his conduct made him an accessory to unauthorized computer access.
The FBI searched Brown’s apartment and his mother’s home on March 6, 2012, seizing computers and chat logs later used in proceedings against Brown and hacker Jeremy Hammond. Brown was arrested on September 12, 2012, after posting a threatening YouTube video about an FBI agent; prosecutors also charged him with obstruction tied to the search. Most charges were dropped in March 2014, and Brown pleaded guilty in April to accessory after the fact, threatening an FBI agent, and obstructing execution of a warrant. In January 2015 he received 63 months in prison and was ordered to pay $890,250 in fines and restitution. His mother received six months’ probation and a $1,000 fine for misdemeanor obstruction. A later lawsuit by donors alleged that a Justice Department subpoena to WePay disclosed their identities to the FBI for potential surveillance and harassment; a judge denied dismissal in October 2017.
