Israeli who allegedly hacked Madonna indicted
Adi Lederman, who has been accused of selling unreleased tracks as well as collecting huge archive of e-mails and pictures, says he knows it was unethical, 'but who the f*** cares?'
An indictment was filed on Tuesday with the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court against Adi Lederman, a 39-year-old city resident who is suspected of systematically hacking into computers and e-mail accounts belonging to figures in the entertainment industry.
Lederman is accused of, among other things, breaking into the computers of ten people associated with the singer Madonna and selling unreleased tracks.
Lederman has been charged with illegal wiretapping, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, and obstruction of justice. The prosecution issued a request to keep Lederman in remand until the end of the proceedings. The investigation was run by the Internet crime unit of Israel's anti-fraud police in close cooperation with the FBI.
Lederman told the police during his interrogation that "it's true that it's unethical, but who the f*** cares?"
The indictment says that some of the singer's team and her musical manager kept music files on their "cloud", allowing them to be accessed with the proper username and password. The prosecution claimed that during 2014, Lederman monitored these e-mail accounts and received all e-mails as they arrived. He saved tens of thousands of communications from these accounts, as well as pictures, music, and documents.
Among the files Lederman obtained were songs slated to appear on Madonna's then-unreleased album "Rebel Heart". He has been accused of selling copies of the songs, as well as the e-mails and pictures, for sums ranging from around $20 to over $1,000.
The indictment claimed that Lederman continued to hack into computers after he was arrested and released. It reported that among other things, he managed to steal files including recordings of rehearsals for the Grammy Awards.
Demos from Madonna's upcoming album "Rebel Heart" were leaked on December 17. The singer responded with outrage on her social media accounts.
