Plea Expected By Hacker Of Celebrity Emails for Nude Pix

A hacker who orchestrated a phishing scheme that gave him illegal access to more than 300 email accounts — including dozens belonging to members of the Hollywood entertainment industry — has agreed to plead guilty.

Edward Majerczyk, 28, of Orland Park, agreed to a deal and will plead guilty to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically, one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Charges were filed Friday.

The FBI identified Majerczyk, who also has a residence in Chicago, as the top suspect in what came to be called "The Fappening" and "CelebGate" among hackers, which resulted in accounts belonging to Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton and her boyfriend Justin Verlander, Kirsten Dunst and other celebrities being compromised.

Sexual photographs of Lawrence were found during an investigation of Majerczyk's activities, according to court documents. In the summer of 2014, nude photos of Lawrence and other celebrities were distributed on the internet. Investigators have not uncovered any evidence linking Majerczyk to the leaks, or that he shared or uploaded the information he obtained.

From November 2013 through August 2014, Majerczyk engaged in a phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for his victims, sending email messages that appeared to be from Apple or Google, according to his plea agreement. When they responded, Majerczyk then had access to the victims' email accounts, from which he obtained personal information, including nude photographs and videos, prosecutors said.

Majerczyk hacked into 330 iCloud accounts from his home, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He used fake email accounts to dupe people, including Lawrence, into giving access to their personal accounts. The FBI describes how Lawrence was tricked:

Sam Biddle, reporting for Gawker, obtained the court documents, noting that they were kept under seal for an unusually long time.

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Once he enters his plea, Majerczyk will face up to five years in federal prison, but both sides have agreed to recommend a prison term of nine months, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The government did not make public the names of Majerczyk's victims, but various celebrity media sources deduced the identities of the victims based on court documents, interviews and the plethora of compromising photographs that flooded the internet.

"This defendant not only hacked into e-mail accounts, he hacked into his victims' private lives, causing embarrassment and lasting harm," said Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office.

"As most of us use devices containing private information, cases like this remind us to protect our data," she said. "Members of society whose information is in demand can be even more vulnerable, and directly targeted."