Bankrupt Banker: Boston Market

Albert Gonzalez has been charged along with 10 others with breaking into the computer systems of nine of the nation's largest retail companies

Albert Gonzalez, 27, who is single and lives with his parents in a modest three-bedroom home in Miami, has been charged along with 10 others with breaking into the computer systems of nine of the nation's largest retail companies and stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers.He is being held without bail in Central Islip in another computer fraud case involving a Dave & Buster's restaurant.<br />The companies targeted by what authorities described as "a sophisticated scheme" were Barnes & Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club, Boston Market, DSW, Forever 21, Office Max, the Sports Authority and TJX Cos., the parent company of TJMaxx and Marshall's.<br />Prosecutors say Gonzalez and the other defendants drove around searching for holes in retailers' wireless networks. They then installed "sniffer" programs within the networks that gathered card numbers as well as password and account information. Some of those numbers were sold to other criminals here and in Eastern Europe. Prosecutors say the defendants also used the numbers to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from automated teller machines."He is a master in the field of computers," said one person familiar with the self-taught Gonzalez and the three-year investigation into the case. Gonzalez allegedly worked as an informant while also tipping the alleged ring, a source familiar with the case said. Informants by their very nature are part of the criminal underworld and have to be handled very carefully, the source said. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said yesterday that as soon as the agency became aware of Gonzalez's double role, it dropped him as an informant and began investigating him. Without going into details, the indictment says that Gonzalez got information while working as an informant, which he passed on to fellow hackers to prevent them from being identified by authorities.Gonzalez's attorney, Rene Palomino of Miami, scoffed at the indictment alleging computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy. In a telephone interview yesterday, Palomino said that his client was innocent and that the government faced "substantial challenges" in proving its case.<br />Gonzalez began working as an informant for the Secret Service in 2003, after he was arrested in New Jersey on fraud charges, according to court papers. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan has credited Gonzalez with helping the agency break up a major hacking operation. "That was the first time ever that a computer system was wiretapped," Sullivan said, referring to the 2004 takedown of the leaders of a message board used by hackers and credit-card scam artists around the world to buy and sell stolen information. But sources said that when agents discovered that Gonzalez was tipping off some members of his massive hacking operation to the government's investigation, the resulting probe initially led to his May indictment in federal court in Central Islip. Gonzalez was charged then with illegally obtaining the credit card information of 5,000 customers at the Dave & Buster's restaurant in Islandia. He pleaded not guilty.Brooklyn attorney George Farkas, who handled Gonzalez's Central Islip court hearings, declined to comment yesterday.