The man, Justin Sean Johnson, 30, formerly of Detroit, Michigan, who was known on the dark web as TheDearthStar and Dearthy Star, stole personally identifiable information (PII) of more than 65,000 UPMC employees.
Johnson, the DoJ explains, hacked UPMC’s servers between 2013 and 2014, stealing both PII and W-2 information that he then sold on dark web forums.
The cybercriminals who purchased the information filed hundreds of false 1040 tax returns claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds. The funds were then converted to Amazon gift cards and used to purchase merchandise that was shipped to Venezuela.
