Phishing operation organizer sentenced

27-year old Kenneth Joseph Lucas II has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for having organized the phishing operation shut down by the FBI in October 2009.

Dubbed Operation Phish Phry by the agency, it resulted in the arrest of circa 100 people in the US and Egypt. The phishers’ modus operandi was the following: hackers in Egypt would gather personal information and banking details from the victims and pass them on to their U.S. comrades. The latter would then use the stolen credentials to access the accounts, steal the money and send part of it to their associates in Egypt.

So far, 46 individuals (mostly money mules) have already been convicted. Lucas the 47th and the one who got sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of charges: bank and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, computer fraud and money laundering.

According to Softpedia, the final sentence has been upped by two years because Lucas has also been found guilty this week of growing marijuana in his residence.