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Jury ponders fate of ‘computing’s greatest thief’

A jury has begun deliberating the fate of Scott Levine, who is accused of one of the world’s biggest computer thefts.

Levine, former chief executive of email marketing company Snipermail, is accused of 144 counts of computer crime.

Amongst other charges Levine is accused of stealing 8.2 gigabytes of data from information management company Acxiom.

The jury is expected to focus on evidence concerning Levine's laptop, that contained details of a scheme to capture Acxiom data, including emails between Snipermail employees.

"Scott Levine's username was Snipermail13. Why was 13 chosen? Because that was the number of Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino," said Karen Coleman lawyer for the prosecution. "And just like a quarterback leads the team, Scott Levine led the crime."

Despite her flowery assertions, Levine pleaded innocent, in contrast to his brother-in-law and five other Snipermail cohorts who pleaded guilty to the crimes.

August has proved to be a month of cybercrime convictions. Earlier this week SC reported spam-king Scott Richter was forced to pay Microsoft $7 million after his spam campaign through his company OptInRealBig.

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