made this thread about the books I read in prison, but that has not been the topic of discussion at all, so I'm changing the title and answering your questions regarding my past. I'm very open about this as it's all being put behind me, so ask away.
Basically, I sold one of the most popular product on this forum, a Remote Administration Tool(Trojan) called Blackshades. It was a very shitty RAT, but had gained notoriety over time as being easy to use, cheap, and a good spot for beginners to learn about RATs/Malware. After years of selling it, I quit and cleaned up my act. Nearly 2 years after quitting, many people involved with the project as customers and administrators began to be arrested. I'm one of the first people to be arrested and released that has loose enough internet restrictions to be able to talk about this with you guys.
Here is an old post summarizing my arrest and experience:
I don't want to start a new thread but I figured I'd tell you how this went down.
I was arrested May 18th, 2014, which was 2 days after the majority of Blackshades related people got arrested. I was woken up at 7:00am to car doors slamming, and I looked out my window to see FBI surrounding my house. There were about 15 or so agents, and unfortunately the majority of them had assault rifles. After searching my house for any possibility of someone hiding inside, the first thing they asked me was if I knew why they were here. I responded Blackshades and they then stated, "you've been posting quite a bit on Twitter." I had made about half a dozen Blackshades related tweets regarding the seizure of their domains, the raids and the arrest of Marjinz.
I was only served with an arrest warrant, not a search warrant, so my devices remained in my possession. I thought that was kind of odd, but did not complain as you can imagine. Another odd point was it seemed that every federal officer I spoke to was shocked that they were arresting me on a Sunday, I guess the Detention Center is not used to new arrivals on the weekend. I spent 1 day in the Detention Center before I was bailed out. I was charged with Conspiracy to Hack Computers and Distribution of Malware.
Luckily, I was able to obtain a very experienced lawyer when it comes to cyber crimes, and he helped me a ton. My case was based out of New York, and me being from California, that made things very difficult. I had to be present in court or in the FBI office in New York roughly 10 times, and each trip was on my own dime. After a couple interviews with the FBI (ultimately we agreed that I would not cooperate with the FBI on other cases, I would only discuss my own) and negotiations with my lawyer, I agreed to plead guilty and avoid a trial. If I attempted to go to trial, they were going to attempt to bring up more charges, some of which had mandatory minimum sentences. I agreed to plead guilty for a sentence of five and a half years in prison. Obviously this deal was not in my favor, five years is a very long time, and my lawyer agreed. My lawyer spent a lot of time negotiating with the US Attorney and the FBI, and eventually was able to get the case forwarded to the superiors of the FBI agents in charge. Roughly one to two months before my sentencing hearing, the higher ups in the FBI agreed to lower our deal to two and a half years.
When my sentencing hearing came around, I had a lot of family and friends fly out to New York to show support in the court room. The day before sentencing, the judge delayed it two weeks. Roughly 20 of my closest friends and family had to be notified that their trip to New York was now wasted. We did get to have a bit of fun, but it was very disappointing overall. When the new date came around, only my Dad and myself made the trip out there, we couldn't ask everyone else to pay for a second trip. Orgy and his girlfriend were going to come out, but we agreed it may not be the best decision, so he cancelled his trip at the last minute.
My sentencing ended up going well. I went in agreeing to a two and a half year sentence, and the judge has the discretion to raise or lower that bar. Obviously I was hoping for something lower, anything under two years was in my mind lucky, with house arrest or straight probation being the ultimate goal. The judge was a pretty reasonable guy, and seemed very understanding to my arguments. However, he was not pleased that all of my hard drives were destroyed before my arrest, and specifically said he believed I was hiding evidence. Because of that, he decided to be lenient on me, but still impose a prison sentence. I was sentenced to one year and one day in a low security prison. I ended up being assigned to the same prison that the guy from Wolf of Wallstreet guy went to. After my sentencing hearing, I had roughly six weeks to settle my affairs and then I was off to prison. In Federal Prison, things don't quite work like State or County. There is no parole and there is no getting out at 60% completion for good time. The earliest you can get out of Federal Prison is at 85%, which is when I was released. In total I served just under 11 months.
Prison its self is very shitty. It's dirty, loud, you have no privacy and you're stuck constantly seeing the same 500 faces day after day. Luckily, I'm a pretty big guy at 6 foot 4 and about 250 pounds, so I never really had to fear violence or people trying to fuck with me. Prison is also very segregated, but somehow I was able to avoid that. The Blacks and Mexicans let me use their equipment, tables and enter their areas whenever I wanted. Surprisingly it was the Asians who didn't like me, and they were the only people I ever had trouble with. However, when an Asian man who's a foot shorter than you and probably 125 pounds lighter threatens you with violence, you have nothing else but to laugh. Prison was long, boring, and hot (it was in the middle of the desert) but I did get a lot of reading done, and I learned a bit of Russian.
TL;DR: Arrested for selling malware on this forum. Plead out to five and a half years in prison. FBI later reduced to two and a half. Judge went even further and reduced it to one. I am very lucky.
This is a very simple recap of everything that happened from May 2014 to June 2016. There's a lot more in the details, but I feel like a lot of it should not be mentioned. I'm not looking to piss off the US Government or anyone else, so this is what you guys get. Overall, very shitty situation, cost me roughly $200,000 and 2 years of my life. Would not Recommend. 0/10, 2/10 with rice.