First Web RICO Conviction Could Be Future of Online Enforcement

LAS VEGAS, NV—A unique verdict by a Las Vegas jury could set a precedent that spells hard times for any number of online miscreants who engage in high- or low-level internet-based criminal activity. Friday, for the first time ever, a man was "found guilty of federal racketeering charges for facilitating his crimes over a website," according to Wired. The man, David Ray Camez, 22, "was already serving a seven-year state term for fraud when the feds charged him again under RICO. The key question facing the jurors wasn’t whether Camez was a crook, which the defense conceded, but whether the website on which he did business amounted to an organized criminal enterprise comparable, as a legal matter, to the Mafia or a Los Angeles street gang." The jury agreed that it was. "The verdict means that Camez, a low-level crook with few assets, will be legally culpable for every crime committed by all 7,900 users of Carder.su, the identify theft forum where he bought stolen credit card information and counterfeiting equipment for use in his crimes," reported Wired. "By the government’s estimate, that’s $50.5 million in losses, worth about 20 years in prison." But it is what the verdict could mean for countless others on the internet that got Wired all revved up. "The government’s win has implications for users of websites like the relaunched Silk Road drug site, file sharing services, or any online forum that’s primarily used for illegal purposes," noted the site. "Minor scofflaws using such a site could, under the RICO model, be punished with the same severity as the worst offender." Needless to say, rounding up file sharers in RICO prosecutions could have a dramatic impact on global piracy, as could holding accountable the myriad number of websites—tube or otherwise—that continue to engage in profligate levels of piracy. Worse, users of any adult website which posts material that a jury finds to be obscene could conceivably also take RICO hits. Of course, one would have to also be in reach of the law to be held legally accountable. In the Carder.su case, not everyone is. "Roman Zolotarev and two other alleged site ringleaders are among those indicted, but they live safely out of reach in Russia," reported Wired. Camez' lawyer, Chris Rasmussen, is none too pleased with that fact. Complaining of the verdict against his client, "They steamrolled us,” he said of the Russians being able to skate (for the time being), "They never intended to get the main guys. They’re only going to get the college kids that came in, and guys like Camez.” Camez was indeed relatively low-level in terms of his involvement, but his activity through the site, and well as other users like him, was nonetheless cumulatively instrumental to its success in becoming, as Wired put it, "a criminal eBay." The news site added, "Carefully screened 'vendors' sold a wealth of products: counterfeiting gear, stolen identify information, skimmed or stolen credit card magstripe data, hacker tools, botnets for rent, and online banking credentials. Forum administrations and moderators kept the system purring, and ordinary members like Camez could post reviews of the products they’d bought." The site eventually got on the feds' radar, an investigation was begun, and an "undercover Secret Service agent infiltrated Carder.su by selling fake IDs on the site under the nickname 'Celtic.'" It was "Celtic" who eventually snared Camez in 2009. "The four-year operation," reported Wired, "put high-quality fake IDs—most of them manufactured by the Nevada DMV—in the hands of 100 criminals around the world, while the government gathered evidence for four federal grand jury indictments against 55 defendants in 10 countries." Those indictments of foreign nationals may not immediately result in arrests and prosecutions, but neither do they go away anytime soon.