New York man admits internet scam to defraud celebrities of $80m

A former New York restaurant worker has pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of more than 200 of America's wealthiest people - including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oprah Winfrey, the financier George Soros and the media mogul Ted Turner - in a scheme to defraud them of $80m using the internet.

Abraham Abdallah, 32, of Brooklyn, faces between 11 and 288 years in jail.

"I wish I could say that this was all about money - then I'd have a reason to explain why I've ruined my life," he told Judge Loretta Preska in a Manhattan court. "I have extensive history in this sort of thing ... the motivating factor always has to do with my ability to control my compulsions ... If there is anyone on this earth that wants this to stop, I do."

The Brooklyn man was arrested in March last year, and his case, described by investigators as the largest internet identity theft in history, prompted a worldwide panic over online fraud.

Police discovered almost 21,000 fraudulent or blank credit cards and hundreds of celebrities' home addresses and social security numbers at Abdallah's home.

A copy of Forbes magazine featuring its list of America's 400 richest people had notes scribbled all over it. He targeted 217 of those listed, using computers in his local library to establish accounts in their names at institutions they already used, then requesting transfers from their real accounts into the new ones.

Police were first alerted when the bank Merrill Lynch con tacted Thomas Siebel, an electronics entrepreneur, about a suspicious request to move $10m from one of his accounts.

"A great deal of anguish goes into it when I start doing something like this," Abdallah told the court. "I'm sorry to all of my victims, not just the ones in this case."

He was on medication for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, he added.

Having pleaded guilty to 12 charges of wire and mail fraud, credit card fraud, conspiracy and identity theft, Abdallah could face 288 years in jail, the judge told him, but he is likely to receive something closer to the 11-year minimum when he is sentenced in January.