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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Scarfo pleads guilty, ends legal battle over PGP spying tech




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 1 Mar 2002 11:32:59 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Scarfo pleads guilty, ends legal battle over PGP spying tech
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

Politech archive on U.S. v. Scarfo:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=scarfo

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Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 10:10:29 -0500
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
From: David Sobel <sobel@epic.org>
Subject: Scarfo Plea Bargain

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/2769774.htm

Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002

Scarfo's high-tech case ends with plea

The FBI had fought a bid by the mob boss' son for details on the
top-secret device used to monitor his computer.

By George Anastasia
Inquirer Staff Writer

NEWARK, N.J. - The son of jailed Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo
"Little Nicky" Scarfo pleaded guilty to a bookmaking charge here
yesterday, quietly ending a run-of-the-mill underworld gambling case
that had taken on national significance because of the top-secret
technology the FBI used to gather evidence against him.

Throughout a two-year pretrial debate, authorities vigorously opposed
defense lawyers' attempts to get detailed information about a computer
monitoring device, a so-called keystroke recorder, that was used to
break a coded computer file where the younger Scarfo allegedly stored
gambling records. Prosecutors contended that to disclose how the
technology worked would have jeopardized national security.

Nicodemo S. Scarfo, 36, entered the guilty plea during a brief hearing
before U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano. Scarfo admitted supervising a
gambling operation in North Jersey for about a year, beginning in the
summer of 1998.

[...]

---

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-848173.html

   Plea turns legal heat off PC surveillance
   By Reuters 
   February 28, 2002, 2:50 PM PT

   Reputed mobster Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. pleaded guilty to illegal
   gambling Thursday in a New Jersey federal court, ending the case
   that inadvertently produced the first ruling supporting the
   government's right to spy on personal computers. 

   According to the plea agreement, Scarfo, 36, of Belleville, N.J.,
   agreed to serve a minimum 33 months in prison and not to contest a
   longer term that may be imposed when he is sentenced June 10 by
   U.S. District Court Judge Joel Pisano.

   Scarfo, who remains under house arrest until the sentencing, also
   agreed to two to three years of supervised release following the
   jail term. He may also be fined as much as $250,000, or twice the
   gross proceeds from the illegal bookmaking operation he admitted he
   ran between 1998 and 1999 from his Belleville office.

   [...]

   The case began as a commonplace bookmaking case until defense
   attorneys demanded disclosure of FBI secret surveillance of the
   office computer Scarfo used to keep track of bets. Then, as the
   first such case in federal courts, it drew national attention to
   the issue of computer privacy rights vs. law enforcement's right to
   use secret computer technology.

   [...]

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