This page keeps track of arrests of alleged Anonymous activists and their court processes. Inclusion in this list should not be taken as a confirmation that those listed are members of Anonymous, that any online handle matches any real life name, or that those listed are in fact guilty of any criminal offenses. Inclusion merely acknowledges public media or law enforcement reports. Information is listed in reverse chronological order, with most recent items at the top of the page.
In cooperation with FreeAnons: http://freeanons.org/
- Bold Dates: Arrests/Raids/Detentions
- Italic Dates: Court dates and decisions
- Plain Dates: Other
2013
April
- April 8th: Upcoming court date for Ryan Ackroyd, 25, aka “kayla” and “tflow”, a 17-year-old A-level student from South London, name not disclosed due to his status as a minor. Both “deny their involvement in the DDoS attacks and will stand trial on April 8, 2013.” (Independent.ie, 25 June 2012)
March
- March 14th: Upcoming sentencing for Arizonan Raynaldo Rivera, aka “Neuron” aka “royal” aka “wildicv”, accused of stealing information from Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems in May and June 2011 using an “SQL injection” attack against the studio’s website. Location: Los Angeles Federal Court, 8:30 AM. (@LeidermanDevine Twitter)
- March 7th: Upcoming sentencing for Cody Kretsinger, aka “Recursion”, who plead guilty to hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment in April 2011. Location: Los Angeles Federal Court, 8:30 AM (@LeidermanDevine Twitter)
February
- February 22nd: Upcoming sentencing for Hector Monsegur aka “Sabu”, who pled guilty on 12 charges. (@LeidermanDevine Twitter)
January
- January 24th: Christopher Weatherhead (aka Nerdo) was sentenced to 18 months prison for his part in the DDoS attacks on PayPal, Visa and Mastercard in December 2010. Ashley Rhodes (aka Nikonelite) was sentenced to 7 months prison for activities in Anonymous and Peter Gibson was given a 6 month suspended sentence for his role in Anonymous attacks. Jake Burchall was adjourned. Source: The Guardian
- January 15th: Court rules about LulzCart et al in Romania: No jail time, all defendants get out on probation. The U.S. liability have been squashed due to lack of evidence. Source Romanian Court Documents
- January 8th: Court appeal date for Balaeasa Gabriel aka ‘LulzCart’ in Romania. Source Freeanons, Balaeasa Gabriel Docket File
2012
December
- December 17th: Barrett Brown “pleaded innocent to all 12 charges filed against him in connection with the theft of credit card information from intelligence firm Stratfor” and “waived his right to a hearing concerning his arraignment, and entered innocent pleas for all of the new charges he faces, which could result in 40 years in prison, according to court documents.” (Source: SC Magazine) Plea Document
- December 10th: Scheduled court date for Barrett Brown, facing charges for Internet Threats, Conspiracy to Make Publicly Available Restricted Personal Information of an Employee of the United States, and Retaliation Against a Federal Law Enforcement Officer. (Source: United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division)
- December 6th: Christopher Weatherhead from Northampton aka “Nerdo” is convicted at Soutwark Crown Court in London on a charge of conspiring to impair the operation the computers of Paypal between August 1, 2010 and January 22 2011. “A jury of six men and five women deliberated for little more than two hours on Thursday before returning a guilty verdict against Weatherhead for his “integral role” in the attacks, which happened while he was studying at Northampton University.” (Source: guardian.co.uk and walesonline.co.uk)
November
- November 27th: Scheduled court date for Gabriel Balaneasa aka “Lulzcart”, alleged to have contributed to Operation Antisec, after prosecutors contested the initial November 2nd rulings. Location: Bucharest, Judecatoria Sector 5. (Source: Romanian Court Documents, Page 2)
- November 21st: Trial begins for 22-year-old Christopher Weatherhead from Northampton aka “Nerdo”, former network administrator of Anonops. He is accued of having conspired with others and others-unknown to cause damage to computer systems, contrary to Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990. The trial is expected to last 7-10 days. Location: Southwark Crown Court, London. (Source: freeanons.org). The prosecution claimed that Paypal suffered £3.5m damages due to the attack; Weatherhead plead not guilty to conspiring to impair the operation of computers between 1 August 2010 and 22 January 2011. (Source: BBC)
- November 20th: Scheduled bail hearing for alleged Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond, aka “anarchaos” aka “sup_g”, at 10AM at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007. (Source: FreeHammond.org) The Jeremy Hammond Support Network stated after the hearing that “Today bail was denied… The US Federal judge and prosecution stated explicitly that Jeremy’s unique programming skills and history of conscious disobedience to what he considers unjust laws rendered him more dangerous to society than the many pedophiles they release. An appeal will be made, of course, I don’t have details on that yet. On the plus side, we did manage to nearly fill the courtroom again, Jeremy looked healthy, and as far as I know everyone has made it there and back safely. Saw lotsa tears, but lots more determination.” (Source: facebook.com/supporthammond)
October
- October 25th: Cody Kretsinger, aka “Recursion” is scheduled to be sentenced, after pleading guilty in April to hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment. (Source: PCworld.com, 29 August 2012)
- October 15th: Barrett Brown enters a plea of “Not Guilty” to the three charges of Internet Threats, Conspiracy to Make Publicly Available Restricted Personal Information of an Employee of the United States, and Retaliation Against a Federal Law Enforcement Officer. (Source: FreeBarrettBrown.org, 15 October 2012 – PDF file)
- October 11th: Arizonan Raynaldo Rivera, aka “Neuron” aka “royal” aka “wildicv” took a plea agreement which requires him to pay compensation to Sony. According to the BBC, “The attack on Sony was one of many designed to show up the company’s poor security practices. The Lulzsec hackers did not profit from the data they stole, but court papers suggest clearing up after the attack cost Sony $605,000 (£376,550).” Rivera “also faces spending up to five years in prison and could have to pay a fine of $250,000 (£156.000)”.(Source: BBC News, 15 October 2012)
- October 3rd: Barrett Brown has been indicted on three federal charges: Internet Threats, Conspiracy to Make Publicly Available Restricted Personal Information of an Employee of the United States, and Retaliation Against a Federal Law Enforcement Officer. (Source: Dallas Morning News, 4 October 2012 – court document included)
September
- September 13th: Police forces raid and detain Barrett Brown in his home in Dallas, Texas. A spokeswoman in the Dallas County sherriff’s office confirmed to Wired that Brown was raided last night and was booked into the county jail around 11 p.m. She said the FBI removed him from the jail this morning to take him to a different facility, but she did not know where he was headed. (Source: Wired, September 13th 2012). According to the criminal law firm Leiderman Devine, he was arrested for threatening a Federal Agent in a video released by Barrett Brown earlier that day. (source: Leiderman Devine’s Twitter feed)
August
- August 29th: Raynaldo Rivera, 20, of Tempe, Arizona, aka “neuron,” “royal” or “wildicv,” surrendered to U.S. authorities in Phoenix six days after a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment charging him with conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. The indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, accuses Rivera and co-conspirators of stealing information from Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems in May and June 2011 using an “SQL injection” attack against the studio’s website, a technique commonly employed by hackers. The indictment said Rivera then helped to post the confidential information onto LulzSec’s website and announced the intrusion via the hacking group’s Twitter account. (Source: Reuters, 29 August 2012)
- August 24th: Higinio O. Ochoa III aka “w0rmer” was sentenced by a federal judge in Austin to 27 months in federal prison for hacking into computers of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, Houston County, Alabama and the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association. Higinio plead guilty in June to accessing a protected computer without authorization, had faced up to five years in prison. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ordered him to pay more than $14,000 in restitution. (Source: Statesman.com, 24 August 2012)
July
- July 23rd: Court date for alleged Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond, aka “anarchaos” aka “sup_g”. (Source: Ars Technica, 14 May 2012). The court decided to postpone the trial to september to to allow them to complete their investigation and possibly add more charges to the case than were already in place. Liz Fink, one of Jeremy’s lawyers advised the court that they needed Jeremy out of jail so that he could help with his defense due to the large amounts of information involved and also advised that they would be submitting a bail package in the next week to two weeks. (Source: Witnesses in Court)
- July 12th: Upcoming court decision for Jake Davis aka “Topiary” and Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan” to allow the prosecutor time to decide if they will stand trial. (STV, 25 June 2012)
June
- June 25th: Court date at Southwark Crown Court to enter pleas for Ryan Ackroyd aka “kayla”, Jake Davis aka “Topiary”, Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan” and an unnamed 17-year-old. (Original source of court date: @rj_gallagher in Pastebin). “Cleary pleaded guilty to six of eight charges filed by London prosecutors at a hearing today. Jake Davis, another LulzSec member, pleaded guilty to two of four charges. Two other defendants, Ryan Ackroyd and a 17-year-old man who can’t be identified for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to four charges.” (Source: Bloomberg News, 25 June 2012) “The case has been adjourned until July 12 while the Director of Public Prosecutions decides whether Cleary and Davis should stand trial.” (Digital Spy, 25 June 2012)
- June 20th: Raids and arrests, in the Liège, Huy and Tournai regions of Belgium, of three alleged Anonymous members for the January 2012 hacking of the website of “the world’s leading integrated steel and mining company”, ArcelorMittal. (7sur7.be, 21 June 2012)
- June 12th: Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan”, indicted by U.S. federal grand jury in Los Angeles district court filing for alleged role in hacks of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group and others. (Read the court document). NOTES: “An FBI spokeswoman said the U.S. will evaluate after Cleary’s legal proceedings have finished in the U.K. whether to request his extradition… Cleary, who has been diagnosed with a type of high-functioning autism called Aspergers Syndrome, is in jail awaiting trial.” (Source: PC World, 14 June 2012) “This investigation was conducted by the Electronic Crimes Task Force in Los Angeles, which includes FBI and U.S. Secret Service agents, the U.S. attorney’s office as well as the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the California Highway Patrol.” (Source: LA Times, 13 June 2012)
May
- May 29th: Romanian authorities reports 12 arrests of members of “AnonOps Romania”, naming 24 year old Gabriel Balaneasa aka “Lulzcart” as “Leader of the group”. (Source Softpedia, May 29 2012, PC World May 29 2012)
- Names mentioned by Romanian Media:
- Gabriel Balaneasa aka “Lulzcart”
- Fabian Gabor aka “dirtyred” (source: evz.ro)
- Picos Mihai Emil aka “silus” (source: evz.ro)
- Sources: stirileprotv.ro, adevarul.ro, adevarul.ro – All May 29 2012
- May 14th: Jeremy Hammond, aka “anarchaos” aka “sup_g”, entered a “not guilty” plea on Monday during a brief hearing in US District Court in Manhattan. (Source: Associated Press, 14 May 2012) NOTES: “There was no bail request at the brief hearing Monday for Hammond, who pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit computer hacking and other charges. He’s been held in a lower Manhattan lockup since an initial court appearance in Chicago in March.”
- May 11th: Court date for Ryan Ackroyd aka “kayla”, Jake Davis aka “Topiary”, “tflow” [real name not disclosed due to his status as a minor] , Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan” in Westminster Magistrates’ Court. (Initial source: BBC News, 16 March 2012) NOTES: tflow tried and failed to get bail conditions changed to allow him Internet access for school exam study. Ackroyd (kayla) had his bail conditions changed and no longer has to check in at a police station 3 times weekly. He now has tag and curfew from 9pm to 7am. According to @rj_gallagher, “The prosecution said ‘at least one’ of the four alleged hackers who appeared today is likely to contest the charges against them.” (Source: @rj_gallagher in Pastebin).
- May 9th: Arrest and questioning of 17-year-old “MLT” [real name not disclosed due to his status as a minor] in Newcastle, UK. (Initial source: Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2012)
April
- April 12th: Arrest of two British citizens, 16 and 17-years-old, in the West Midlands by detectives from the Police Central e-Crime Unit. The two are alleged to be members of Teamp0ison: (The Guardian, 13 April 2012)
- April 12th: Court date for United States v. Hector Xavier Monsegur aka “Sabu”, New York. “A Manhattan state judge agreed Thursday to dismiss the misdemeanor impersonation charge against Hector Xavier Monsegur if he avoids rearrest for six months. Monsegur was excused from appearing in court.” (AP/Washington Post, 12 April 2012). See also The Smoking Gun, 12 April 2012.
- April 5th:
- Court date for United States v. Christopher Doyon aka “Commander X”. Judge D. Lowell Jensen. Courtroom Deputy: Jackie Lynn Garcia. Courtroom 7, 4th floor in San Jose Courthouse. AUSA: Matthew Parrella/DEF: Jason Leiderman. Motion for Judgment on Forfeiture of Bond. Note: Defendant not present.
- Court date for Cody Kretsinger aka “Recursion” relating to charges of hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment. Kretsinger pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer in a deal with prosecutors, reversing an earlier not guilty plea. (Source: Reuters, 5 April 2012)
- April 2nd: Scheduled court date for United States v. Jeremy Hammond (Court Document) aka “anarchaos” aka “sup_g”, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl St., New York, NY 10007-1312. Note: Hearing did not take place.
March
- March 27th: Reported arrest of 16-year-old Australian hacking suspect “Dwaan”, in relation to KPN hack. (IT World, 27 March 2012)
- March 26th: 6 citizens of the Dominican Republic arrested, among them “Zerohack”, “Nmap”, “Mot” and “Ostia”, 2 names withheld as their status as minor. [1], [2], [3], FreeAnons Information
- March 20th:
- Arrest of 17-year-old “xS” aka “Yoshioka” aka “Yui” by Dutch police and charged with KPN hack. (IT World, 27 March 2012) (Techworld, 28 March 2012)
- Arrest of Higinio Ochoa aka w0rmer, charged with unauthorized access to a protected computer in a criminal complaint dated March 15. (threatpost.com 20 March 2012), Media:USA-vs-Ochoa-complaint.pdf
- Arrest of 21-year-old John Anthony Borell III, aka Kahuna, aka itsKahuna charged with two counts of computer intrusion for the hacks of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association and the Salt Lake City Police Department websites. (huffingtonpost.com 16 April 2012) (Criminal Complaint)
- March 8th: A person suspected of attempting to hack into several websites maintained by state institutions has been arrested in Serbia. b92.net 8 March 2012
- March 7th: Irish citizen Donncha O’Cearbhail aka “Palladium” released without charge. independent.ie, March 7th 2012
- March 6th:
- Arrest of Jeremy Hammond aka “anarchaos”, Ryan Ackroyd aka “kayla”, Jake Davis aka “Topiary”, Darren Martyn aka “pwnsauce”, Donncha O’Cearrbhail aka “Palladium”. (CNN, 6 March 2012)
- Dallas apartment of Barrett Brown raided by Federal Bureau of Investigation. Brown reported that the search warrant mentioned evidence pertaining to “conspiracy to obstruct justice, and the obstruction of justice, i.e. tampering with a victim, witness, or informant” and “conspiracy to access without authorization protected computers, and fraud and related activity in connection with computers (aiding and abetting), in whatever form…” The warrant mentioned “Records relating to HBGary; Infragard; Endgame Systems; Anonymous; Lulzsec; IRC chat; Twitter; wiki.echelon2.org; and pastebin.com.” (Source: Pastebin.com, 7 March 2012)
- March 5th: Arrest of Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan” for breach of bail requirements by reportedly contacting “Sabu” over Christmas. (BBC News, 2 April 2012)
February
- February 20th: Three Greek citizens arrested, accused of hacking and defacing Greece’s Ministry of Justice website; arrests possibly took place earlier this month. [4], FreeAnons Information
2011
September
- September 21st: Cody Kretsinger, 23, of Phoenix, Arizona, aka “Recursion” was arrested by FBI agents for his role in hacking the computer systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment. (source: FBI press release, 22 September 2011)
- September 21st: Arrest of Christopher Doyan aka “CommanderX”. (United States vs. Christopher Doyon)
- September 2nd: Donncha O’Cearbhail aka “Palladium” and Darren Martyn aka “pwnsauce”, accused of defacing Finn Gael website, arrested on September 1st, released without charges. thejournal.ie, September 2nd, 2011, siliconrepublic.com, September 2nd, 2011
- September 1st: Scotland Yard reports the arrest of two men accused of using the handle “kayla” (possibly Ryan Ackroyd and his brother, unconfirmed) (FoxNews, September 2nd, 2011)
August
- August 12th: Secret court hearing for Hector Monsegur aka “Sabu”, who pled guilty on 12 charges. Media:Sabu_complaint.pdf
- August 5th: Secret court hearing to determine bail for Hector Monsegur aka “Sabu”. Bail set at $50.000. Media:Sabu_complaint.pdf
July
- July 27th: Arrest of Jake Davis aka “Topiary” in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. (Naked Security, 27 July 2011)
- July 19th:
- Arrest of U.S. American citizen Scott Matthew Arciszewski, accused of hacking Infragard Tampa Bay. (KnightNews.com, 19 July 2012), Media:Arciszewski-Complaint.pdf
- Arrest of U.S. American citizen Lance Moore, accused of stealing data from his employer AT&T, (Justice Department, 19 July 2012), Media:Moore-complaint.pdf, Media:Moore-release.pdf
- July 13th: Filing of charges against Paypal 14. (USA v. Collins et al, filed 13 July 2011)
- July 5th: 32 raids in Italy (one in Switzerland), 15 arrested, including “phre” who, according to Italian authorities, is the leader of the Italian Anonymous cell. digitaltrends.com July 5, 2011, ars technica, July 7, 2011
June
- June 22nd: Arrest of 19-year-old Ryan Cleary aka “ViraL” aka “Ryan” in Essex, UK. (Daily Mail, 22 June 2011)
- June 13th: Turkish police have detained 32 people, five of them under 18, on suspicion of involvement in Anonymous-led distributed denial of service attacks against Turkish government websites. ars technica, 13 June 2011
- June 10th: Reported arrest of 3 Anonymous activists in Spain, accused of attacking the websites belonging to Sony, Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, Italian energy company Enel, and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia, and New Zealand. ars technica, 10 July 2011
- June 7th: Arrest of Hector Xavier Monsegur aka “Sabu” by FBI in New York, NY. Media:Sabu_complaint.pdf
January
- January 27th: 40 search warrants, 14 arrests for Paypal DDoS attacks (FBI, 27 January 2011) and (WIRED, 27 January 2011)
- Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka “Anthrophobic;”
- Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka “Absolem” and “Toxic;”
- Keith Wilson Downey, 26;
- Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka “No” and “MMMM;”
- Donald Husband, 29, aka “Ananon;”
- Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka “Trivette,” “Triv” and “Reaper;”
- Ethan Miles, 33;
- James C. Murphy, 36;
- Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka “Drew010;”
- Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka “Jeffer,” “Jefferp” and “Ji;”
- Daniel Sullivan, 22;
- Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42;
- Christopher Quang Vo, 22;
- Dennis Collins aka “Iowa”, name originally withheld by the court.
2010
December
January
- January 22nd: 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, Nebraska, signs plea deal for January 2008 DDoS attack against Church of Scientology. (WIRED, 26 January 2010)
2009
November
- November 18th: 19-year-old Dmitriy Guzner from New Jersey was sentenced to a 366-day federal prison term and two years’ probation after his release from prison, for taking part in a January 2008 DDoS attack against the Church of Scientology. (Associated Press, 18 November 2009)
