Federal authorities have charged a La Puente man with crimes connected to illegally accessing thousands of Apple iCloud accounts and collecting more than 620,000 private photos and videos.
The trove of pilfered images included nude pictures of young women, officials said Monday.
Hao Kuo Chi, also known as David Chi, 40, agreed to plead guilty to four felony counts on Aug. 16, including conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to private computers, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The Times reported that Chi admitted to impersonating an Apple customer support agent in emails soliciting Apple ID and password information from unsuspecting victims. He subsequently gained access to the photo and video libraries of more than 300 Apple users across the United States, most of them young women, according to a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors in Florida.
Chi told prosecutors that he and certain unnamed co-conspirators effected the scheme using an overseas encrypted email platform to communicate with one another anonymously. The group shared stolen nude photos and videos collectively, which they termed "wins."
"I don't even know who was involved," Chi told The Times.
He told The Times he feared exposure of his crimes would "ruin [his] whole life."
"I'm remorseful for what I did, but I have a family," he said.
Chi's underground ring of nude photo traffickers was unveiled in March 2017, when a California company specializing in the removal of unauthorized celebrity photos from the Internet notified an unspecified public figure in Florida that nude photos of him or her had been posted to pornographic websites. The victim told investigators the photos had been taken using an iPhone and backed up to the iCloud digital storage service.
Investigators determined that someone had logged into the victim's iCloud account from an IP address located at Chi's home in La Puente. The FBI obtained a search warrant and raided the house on May 19.
Chi faces up to five years in prison for each felony he has pleaded guilty to—one count of conspiracy and three counts of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer.