Kiwi cyber-fraudster admits charges
Date: March 03, 2008Source: Stuff.co.nz/
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A 22-year-old Aucklander busted by the FBI for an internet blackmail scam is in jail after admitting internet fraud worth $300,000.
Tomasz Grygoruk was awaiting trial for a March 2006 attempt to extort $US10,000 ($13,000) from an American teacher when police last month laid fresh charges against him in Manukau District Court.
Grygoruk had been denying the blackmail allegations, but pleaded guilty last month to unlawful access of the teacher's computer system and blackmail. He had threatened to go public with rumours of the teacher's affair with a student, but the FBI quickly traced him and police raided his Howick home.
He was remanded in custody for sentencing next month after also pleading guilty to an additional charge of unlawfully accessing a computer system, altering an electronic document with intent to defraud and using an electronic document for pecuniary advantage.
Grygoruk's trial had been set down for May in the High Court at Auckland. Instead a psychiatric report and drug and alcohol evaluation are being prepared ahead of sentencing.
He told police his years of internet crime earned him close to $300,000.
His mother, who would not give her name, was distraught over the revelations.
Meanwhile, the Whitianga teenager at the centre of an international cyber-crime investigation faced four charges when he appeared in Thames District Court on Friday.
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