Federal employee charged with accessing celeb info

[July 22, 2011]  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A U.S. State Department employee in San Francisco is facing charges that he looked up the passport applications of more than 100 celebrities in the government records system.

Federal prosecutors charged 60-year-old Richard Macias on Wednesday with three misdemeanor counts of exceeding authorized computer access.

Authorities say Macias worked for the passport agency for 24 years, most recently as a fraud prevention manager. They say he logged into the system 168 times to view and sometimes print out celebrity applications.

Macias told the San Francisco Chronicle that he plans to plead guilty in the case. He maintains that he viewed the applications for work and that none of the information was ever given away or used for profit.

Neither authorities nor Macias would name the celebrities involved.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/

[Associated Press]

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