Conviction in Acxiom Data-Theft Case Upheld

An appeals court yesterday upheld the conviction and sentence given to a Florida man in the theft of 1 billion records from database manager information provider Acxiom Corp.

Scott Levine was sentenced to 8 years in prison and ordered to pay $153,395 in restitution to Acxiom in April 2005 for his role in the data theft, which also included others.

At issue in the appeal was the prosecution’s use of Levine’s lavish personal finance profile to prove that he personally benefited from the theft.  The appeals court ultimately said that his argument had no merit.

Levine owned a Florida company that distributed Internet ads to e-mail addresses and had limited access to Acxiom’s database in that capacity.  It came out in the original trial that he used decryption software to obtain passwords and go beyond his authorized access. Data stolen included names, telephone numbers, street addresses and e-mail addresses, along with highly detailed demographic information.