Identity Thief Max Ray Butler Gets 13 years for Stealing $86 Million

Acting US Attorney Robert S. Cessar announced on February 12, 2010 that Max Ray Butler, 37, also known as Max Ray Vision and Iceman, of San Francisco, California, has been sentenced in federal court in Pittsburgh to 13 years in prison, followed by five years supervised release, and was ordered to pay $27.5 million in restitution on his conviction on wire fraud charges.

Butler was charged with engaging in computer hacking and identity theft on a massive scale, including hacking into banks and credit card processing centers to steal customers' data. Butler would give the victims' financial information to an accomplice, Christopher Aragon, 47, of Capistrano Beach, California, who would use the information to manufacture fake credit cards, then buy merchandise, or sell the private information online.

Butler and Aragon also created a website called "Cardersmarket," to acquire, use and sell credit card information. They recruited approximately 4,500 people through their website.

The Secret Service arrested Butler back on September 5, 2007 in San Francisco. A search of his computer revealed more than 1.8 million stolen credit card account numbers. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover have reported that the amount of fraudulent charges on the cards totaled approximately $86.4 million.

Max Ray Butler is a fascinating and tragic figure. To learn more about him and the three lives he led, check out Richard Gazarik's excellent article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Hacker, FBI informant, identity thief led many lives". To read about the entire sordid tale with all the shady characters you must read Kevin Poulsen's riveting piece in Wired Magazine, "One Hacker's Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards"

In the video below, Detective Bob Watts of the Newport Beach Police Department demonstrates Christopher Aragon's sophisticated credit card forgery operation. It's scary stuff.