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According to an indictment made public on Friday, Peter Locsin,
35, conspired with others from February 2012 to January 2015 to
compromise accounts belonging to at least five victims at three
financial institutions.
Locsin, of Talisay City, Philippines, allegedly accessed the
accounts through websites, other online means and phone calls,
and used them to make or try to make wire transfers, to order
merchandise, to add new cardholders, or to change addresses.
The information that was compromised included names, birth dates
and Social Security numbers.
None of the victims was identified in court papers. In June
2015, The Philippine Star newspaper said former FBI director
Robert Mueller was among the victims, without saying where it
got the information.
Locsin was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank
fraud, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The
conspiracy count carries a maximum 30-year prison term.
It is unclear whether Locsin has a lawyer for his defense.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said
Locsin is in the custody of Filipino authorities on unrelated
charges. The spokesman declined to identify the victims of the
alleged hacking scheme.
Mueller is now a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, and his
office said he would not comment.
The case is U.S. v. Locsin, U.S. District Court, District of New
Jersey, No. 16-cr-00229.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by
Bernadette Baum)
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