Hacker jailed for stealing files from famous musicians’ digital accounts

A search of the defendant’s Apple Mac laptop uncovered 565 audio files, which included the songs by Vert and Sheeran.

Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to three charges of unauthorised access to computer material, 14 charges of making for sale an article infringing copyright, one charge of converting criminal property and two charges of possession of criminal property. He also admitted to receiving bitcoin cryptocurrency in exchange for the audio files.

23-year-old Kwiatkowski was jailed for 18 months in the wake of a case hearing at Ipswich Crown Court.

Joanne Jakymec (chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s Serious Economic Organised and International Directorate) said: “Kwiatkowski had complete disregard for the musicians’ creativity and hard work in producing original songs and the subsequent loss of earnings. He selfishly stole their music to make money for himself by selling it on The Dark Web. We will always be pursuing ill-gotten gains from the proceeds of such crime.”

The Serious Economic Organised and International Directorate was launched in early April this year and is the Crown Prosecution Service’s response to the changing nature of crime by bringing together as it does specialists in organised and economic crime as the lines in these areas of crime continue to become more blurred.