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NASA hacker Tenenbaum agrees to US extradition

Analyzer surrenders to US Marshals

NASA hacker turned credit card fraud suspect Ehud Tenenbaum has agreed to surrender to US justice, The Calgary Sun reports.

Tenenbaum (AKA The Analyzer) will face the courts in the US, not those in Canada where he is being held on detention, over allegations he masterminded a multi-million dollar credit card scam. He agreed to surrender to US Marshals under a provision within the Extradition Act. The decision is subject to approval by Canadian ministers, but this is considered nothing more than a formality.

Defence lawyer Hersh Wolch said that although his client knows that US sentences are generally thought to be tougher than those applied by the Canadian courts, he simply wanted to be tried. By agreeing to extradition, Tenenbaum only faces prosecution for charges listed in the extradition order. If Tenenbaum had contested extradition then new charges could be added.

The 29 year-old faces charges of credit card fraud and hacking in both Canada and the US, over allegation he orchestrated a hack into the systems of financial services firms, before transferring funds into pre-paid debit card accounts under the control of fraudsters. An estimated $10m was looted via the scheme.

Ten years ago Tenenbaum was convicted of breaking unclassified computer systems maintained by NASA, the Pentagon, the Israeli parliament and Hamas. He was convicted of hacking offences but received only a suspended sentence and a fine. Tenenbaum later took on consulting work in helping to defend Israeli sites from cyber attack before disappearing from view for almost a decade until his arrest in Canada last year. ®

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