A co-conspirator in a massive hacking scheme fled to Malta last March, in a hacking racket that has seen twin brothers – Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, 23 – facing maximum penalties of 50 and 30 years in prison respectively.

The two brothers are pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorization, and conspiracy to access a government computer without authorization. 

Muneeb Akhter faced additional charges of accessing a protected computer without authorization, making a false statement, and obstructing justice.

One of the additional charges is a result of him driving the unnamed co-conspirator to the airport and purchasing a boarding pass, which the co-conspirator used to travel out of the country to Malta.

When the co-conspirator returned to the United States, Muneeb Akhter continued to encourage the co-conspirator to avoid law enforcement agents.

According to the brothers’ plea agreement, Muneeb Akhter hacked into the website of a cosmetics company and stole thousands of its customers’ credit card and personal information. The brothers and co-conspirators used the stolen information to buy goods and services, including flights, hotel reservations, and attendance at professional conferences.

Muneeb Akhter also gave stolen information to an individual he met on the dark-net, a private network where connections are made only between trusted peers.

The co-conspirator sold the information to other dark-net users and gave Mr Akhter a share of the profits.

The two brothers also set their sights on the US State Department together with co-conspirators.

They engaged in a number of computer intrusions and attempted computer intrusions against the State Department in order to get their hands on passport and visa and sensitive information about State Department computer systems.

Sohaib Akhter used his contract position at the State Department to access sensitive computer systems containing personally identifiable information belonging to dozens of co-workers, acquaintances, a former employer, and a federal law enforcement agent investigating his crimes.

Sohaib Akhter used his privileged position to try and secretly install an electronic collection device inside the State Department in order to obtain perpetual access to a certain system.

The device would have allowed co-conspirators to remotely access and collect data from computers in the State Department.

He foiled his own nefarious scheme when he broke the device while trying to install it behind a wall at the State Department in Washington.

The brothers also used their hacking skills to advantage their own private company.

While performing contract work for a private data aggregation company, he hacked into the company’s database of federal contract information so that he and his brother could use the information to tailor successful bids to win contracts and clients for their own technology company.

Muneeb Akhter also inserted codes onto the victim company’s servers that caused them to vote for Akhter in an online contest and send more than 10,000 mass e-mails to students at George Mason University for the purpose of garnering votes.

In October 2014, Muneeb Akhter managed to con his way through a US government background check, which led him to gain employment in a sensitive position with a defence contractor.