The strange case of “DR32” just got a bit stranger. It looks like the Australian national will get a plane ticket back to Australia courtesy of Homeland Security.
David Kee Crees, an Australian national who had also been known online as “Abdilo,” “Notavirus,” “Surivaton”, and “Grey Hat Mafia’s Bitch,” was extradited to the U.S. from Australia in 2022 to stand trial on a 22-count indictment filed by a U.S. grand jury in 2021.
Counts 1 -7 were violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(2)(C), 1030(b), 1030(c)(2)(B)(i) & 2: Access a protected computer without authorization for private financial gain
Counts 8-14 were violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(A), 1030(b), 1030(c)(4)(A)(i)(I) & 2: Cause damage to a protected computer without authorization, causing loss of at least $5,000
Along the way, and for reasons that were never fully publicly explained, the prosecution agreed to drop 8 counts of the indictment and Crees agreed to plead guilty. With Crees pleading guilty to 14 counts, he faced years in prison, and yet, when time came for sentencing, he was only sentenced to “time served” (while he was in detention awaiting trial) plus one year of supervised release, plus a $1,400.00 fine. There was no restitution even mentioned despite the number of victims affected by his hacking and related activities. DataBreaches.net reported on the sentencing in May. .
On June 4, Homeland Security – ICE in Denver announced it had detained Crees. In a post on X.com (formerly Twitter), they announced:
HSI Denver special agents arrested David Kee Crees, 26, an Australian national with multiple convictions for computer fraud and charges for money laundering, and ID fraud. He will be held in ICE custody pending his removal to Australia.
DataBreaches is not sure how this exactly is a bad outcome for Crees, other than his current detention while the government follows due process procedures to seek his deportation. It’s not even clear to DataBreaches that Cree would fight deportation, as he was never in the U.S. voluntarily to begin with. Perhaps this will wind up just being a free flight home for him.
This post will be updated if more information becomes available.