LulzSec Leader Was Really, Really Eager to Help FBI

'Sabu' readily joined feds, pulled all- nighters for them
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 9, 2012 9:22 AM CST
LulzSec Leader Was Really, Really Eager to Help FBI
The hacker known as "Sabu" quickly adapted to working for the FBI.   (Shutterstock)

LulzSec leader Sabu didn't need to be asked twice to partner with the FBI. When the feds arrested him last June, Hector Xavier Monsegur immediately agreed to work for them, court papers show. He pulled all-nighters to help the government track down fellow top members of hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous. "Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has been cooperating with the government proactively," a US attorney told a Manhattan federal court.

As Sabu worked for them, officials tracked him on video and through computer software. He undertook the effort despite "a significant amount of personal risk," prosecutors said, according to the Wall Street Journal. Monsegur was charged with 12 computer crimes—he pleaded guilty to all of them—and faces 124 years in jail, though any deal he may have gotten as part of his cooperation agreement remains unknown. The New York-born hacker, 28, was living on $400 a month in unemployment checks when the FBI swooped in on the Manhattan housing project where he was living, Reuters reports. (More LulzSec stories.)

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