Dec. 29, 2009 (United Press International) -- Computer hacker Albert Gonzalez's third guilty plea involving the theft of millions of credit card numbers cannot add to his prison time, court papers show.
Gonzalez was expected to plead guilty Tuesday to the theft of 130 million credit and debit card numbers and information by hacking into the computers at 7-Eleven, Hannaford Brothers Co. supermarkets and Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE:HPY) , The Boston Globe reported.
He has already pleaded guilty in two other cases and is scheduled to be sentenced March 18. But the prison time in the third charge will be concurrent with the time served in the first two cases, a court agreement says.
The agreement says Gonzalez will not ask for less than 17 years in prison, while prosecutors will not ask for more than 25 years, the newspaper said.
In a related case, Stephen Watt, a Gonzalez associate, was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the theft. Watt also was ordered to pay $171.5 million in restitution, Softpedia reported.
Retail group TJX said it lost $200 million in the thefts thought to be the largest case of identity theft in U.S. history.
