Case & Intern News
Case News:
Ms. T Acquitted of Aggravated Identity Theft and Access Device Fraud!
On June 7, 2022 Seattle AFDs Mohammad Hamoudi, Nancy Tenney and Chris Sanders, along with Seattle paralegals, Luz Vargas, Charlotte Ponikvar and Tacoma investigator Stacey Brownstein started trial with Ms. T who was accused of hacking into a number of computers, including gaining access to the personal information of a large number of Capital One customers. Ms. T was charged with wire fraud, violations of the computer fraud and abuse act (CFAA), access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The defense team, led by AFD Hamoudi, brought out evidence that these companies had configured their computers to be “open,” and thus Ms. T’s access was not in violation of the law. Because the evidence also showed that Ms. T did nothing to profit from the data that she accessed, the team was able to convince the jury that no access device fraud or aggravated identity theft occurred. Although Ms. T was convicted on the wire fraud and CFAA counts, the judge will not be constrained by any mandatory minimum term of incarceration at sentencing. The team now is preparing for sentencing, and brainstorming the appeal. Many kudos to the Seattle paralegal team of Luz, Patricia and Charlotte for all their amazing and creative work on this highly technical and document heavy case.
Intern News:
Please Welcome our New Social Work, Undergrad and Legal Interns that Started in June!
Social Work:
Undergrad:
Legal:
-Congrats to former intern Frank Xiao who interned with our office when he was a rising 2L at Harvard in 2016. Frank has accepted a position with The Legal Aid Society of New York in their appellate division and will start there after he completes his Ninth Circuit clerkship.
It’s officially summer in the Pacific Northwest- Jump in!
