Portland Resident Sentenced to Two Years in Federal Prison for Stealing Identity of Former Co-Worker

PORTLAND, OR—James Nolan Kirkes, 39, of Portland was sentenced to two years in federal prison today in U.S. District Court for stealing the identity of a former co-worker and using the name and password of the person to access a computer and obtain information relating to an employment dispute with Kirkes’ former employer.

During the plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown in March, Kirkes admitted that during 2007 and 2008 he was involved in a legal action related to his 2007 termination from Immersive Media, a company with offices in Portland. During that dispute Kirkes sought to gain access to information about the activities of Immersive Media employees related to the legal action. Among other things, Kirkes entered private property of one of Immersive Media’s employees without permission and obtained a password belonging to the employee. He then used the employee’s name and password to access a computer belonging to the employee and obtain information relating to Immersive Media. Immersive Media became concerned about an apparent compromise of its computer network and took steps to identify and secure network vulnerabilities.

As part of the sentence, Judge Brown ordered Kirkes to pay $25,175.63 in restitution to Immersive Media for the company’s costs to secure their network from intrusions which the company believed were tied to Kirkes’ activities. Pursuant to the terms of his plea agreement Kirkes will also plead guilty to First Degree Burglary, Identity Theft and First Degree Theft in Washington County Circuit Court.

Kirkes will report to begin serving his federal sentence on August 15, 2010. He will also serve a period of one year of supervised release upon his release from prison. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Caldwell.