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Man Faces Prison Time for Threatening Cyberattack on Legal Website

By William Vogeler, Esq. | Last updated on

Kamyar Jahanrakhshan apparently didn't listen to Jim Croce.

Croce, a popular American folk singer from the 1960's, warned us not to mess around with the wrong people. "You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind."

And Kamyar, you don't threaten a case law company because you will never win.

Felony Stupid

Prosecutors charged Jahanrakhshan, aka "Kamyar Jahan Rakhshan," with extortion by threats of damage to Leagle.com. If convicted, he could be sentenced to five years in prsion and fined $250,000.

The Seattle man was arrested after he allegedly threatened to cyberattack the internet-based legal business unless the company removed his criminal history from its case-law website. Rakhshan had been accused of interfering with a police investigation and running a credit card scam to buy luxury cars and a boat, according to reports.

He allegedly contacted Leagle.com using the name "Andrew Rakhshan," and asked the company to remove a link to an offending court decision.

"Claiming that he was the plaintiff in the case, Rakhshan stated that he did not want the opinion available on the internet as it was tarnishing his reputation and violating his privacy," according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. "Rakhshan offered to pay a fee to have the post removed."

Hack Attacks

When the company refused to remove the post, prosecutors said Rakhshan sent an email claiming that he met a group of hackers online who would launch a cyberattack on Leagle.com. On January. 25, 2015, a large amount of traffic targeted the company's IP address and continued until the company removed the link.

In a press release, the Department of Justice said Rakhshan carried out similar "Distributed Denial of Serivce" attacks on a media company, a newspaper and social media in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"At times Rakhshan escalated his threats from DDoS attacks to threats of bomb attacks," the department said.

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