Dallas Man Convicted in Corporate Hacking Case

WASHINGTON—A Texas resident was convicted today by a federal jury for conspiring to hack into his former employer’s computer network, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Sarah R. Saldaña.

Michael Musacchio, 61, of Plano, Texas, was found guilty by a federal jury in Dallas of one felony count of conspiracy to make unauthorized access to a protected computer (hacking) and two substantive felony counts of hacking.

According to the evidence submitted at trial, from 2002 to 2004, Musacchio was the president of Exel Transportation Services, a third party logistics or intermodal transportation company that facilitated links between shippers and common carriers in the manufacturing, retail, and consumer industries. In 2004, Musacchio left Exel to form a competing company, Total Transportation Services, where he was the original president and CEO. Two other former Exel employees, Joseph Roy Brown and John Michael Kelly, also went to work at Musacchio’s new company. Trial testimony and exhibits established that between 2004 and 2006, Musacchio, Brown, and Kelly engaged in a scheme to hack into Exel’s computer system for the purpose of conducting corporate espionage. Through their repeated unauthorized accesses into Exel’s e-mail accounts, the co-conspirators were able to obtain Exel’s confidential and proprietary business information and use it to benefit themselves and their new employer.

A federal grand jury had returned an indictment against the three men on November 2, 2010. Brown and Kelly entered guilty pleas on May 19, 2011, and August 2, 2012, respectively, and are awaiting sentencing. Musacchio is scheduled to be sentenced on June 14, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis in the Northern District of Texas.

The case was investigated by the FBI Dallas Field Office and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Linda Groves and Candina Heath and Trial Attorney Rick Green of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.