Cyber crook Kevin Forbes was caught red-handed as he tried to sell hacked info on 450,000 oil workers — to an FBI informant, The Scottish Sun writes.
The devious recruitment firm boss thought he was about to rake in a £190,000 fortune in New York for the data he’d hacked from a rival company’s website.
But Forbes, 34, of Aberdeen, had no idea the “businessman” he met in a Manhattan hotel was a convicted fraudster who agreed to expose his scam in return for a lenient sentence. And instead of a lucrative deal that would set him up for life he landed an 18-month term in a US prison. A source close to Forbes said: “Kevin walked into it hook, line and sinker. He was caught red-handed.”
Forbes who ran recruitment site Oil and Gas People, told the undercover agent he used 22 fake log-ins to access the other firm’s website and nick job candidates’ CVs. In documents seen by The Scottish Sun, FBI special agent Evelina Aslanyan said he also boasted that staff at an Indian IT hub leaked data to him. She said Forbes thought he was meeting a business partner who wanted to set up a new US oil recruitment website.
He set up his laptop and showed how he stole the info — then the Feds arrested him. Forbes spent 11 days in custody and was clamped in shackles for hearings before he pled guilty to a computer- related fraud charge. When he returned to a New York court for sentencing, he said: “I learned a lesson. I just want to put this behind me.”
His legal team pleaded for him to be given a non-custodial sentence because he’d suffered “serious bullying” as a child. But prosecutor Andrew Ken-Wei Chan said. “The defendant, no question, knew that what he was doing was 100 per cent wrong, 100 per cent illegal.” Judge Kevin Castel said: “This cannot be described as a momentary lapse in judgment.” The beak jailed Forbes and ordered him to pay the other firm £400,000 compensation. He is currently locked up in Moshannon Valley Correctional Centre in Pennsylvania.
Forbes has resigned as a director of Oil and Gas People. But relatives claim he was duped and had gone to the US to try to sell his company. A family friend said last night: “He made a small mistake and got stung by the FBI. Kevin got a low sentence and is in a minimum-security jail. “He is able to speak to his family on the phone and has access to emails.” His parents declined to comment.
