From staff reports
A Michigan man pleaded guilty Thursday to hacking UPMC human resources databases and stealing personal information for tens of thousands of employees.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Justin Sean Johnson, 30, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to two counts of his 43-count indictment before Chief United States District Judge Mark R. Hornak.
The DOJ said Johnson, also known as TheDearthStar and Dearthy Star, hacked into UPMC’s server databases in 2013 and 2014 and stole sensitive personal and W-2 information for more than 65,000 employees.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of false tax refunds were claimed and converted into Amazon.com gift cards with merchandise being shipped to Venezuela, the DOJ said.
Johnson also stole and sold nearly 90,000 other people’s information over 2014 through 2017, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ said Johnson’s scheme totaled about $1.7 million in false tax return refunds.
The court ordered Johnson to remain detained pending sentencing, the DOJ said.
Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Melucci is prosecuting the case on behalf of the government, the DOJ said.
Agents from the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation leading to the prosecution of Johnson, the DOJ said.
