International Criminal Justice Aaron Hanna

Question :

I have found that the author is credible because his articles are unbiased, and he is well published. The article is recent and up to date regarding the information that is needed. The article talks about intellectual property laws and how it can be cyberattacked. The case is about hackers stealing intellectual property so this will give me an insight from other cases with he same topics.

Answer :

Introduction

The case taken for analysis is of four members of the International Computer Hacking Ring Indicted for stealing gaming technology and Apache helicopter training software. Among these four members, one is from Canada named David Pokora. The remaining three are from US states belonging to New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana. It has been alleged that there is one person from Australia who was also involved in this incident. So overall, there are five individuals who have been named in which two are international and three are national These individuals engaged in act of stealing proprietary data and property of various private companies such as Microsoft Corporation, Valve Corporation, Epic Games, and Zombie Games (Woolf, 2014)). They stole software related to Xbox Live game system, and other popular games such as Call of Duty, FIFA online soccer series, and Gears of War 3. The case not only involves national but international laws as well where the justice system of America has to work with others ("Fourth Member of International Computer Hacking Ring Pleads Guilty to Hacking and Intellectual Property Theft Conspiracy — FBI", 2015). A key aspect that has to be considered here is that all the four criminals caught have pleaded guilty on the charges. Only the fifth one, who is from Australia, is not in the picture. The purpose of this paper is shed light on these aspects while looking at American Justice System, crime violation, and international agencies and law in separate sections. 

American Justice System

Procedural laws can be considered as the rule of court that determines how the court will hear or determine the happening in the criminal, civil, lawsuit, or administrative proceedings. It decides on how the court will do its business. It determines the way court can hear case and the actions that the parties should take to put their case before the court for hearing. The major challenge with the US system is that each state has its own procedural laws and federal system has its own. Current case is a criminal matter. Here, procedural laws for criminal cases states that arrest is only made on the basis of probable cause. Charges have to be filed by a prosecutor with clear explanation on what the individual is accused for. It is must to bring defendant to the court to answer their criminal charge. Defendant has to inform that whether court has to appoint an attorney for them or they have brought an attorney. Bail has to be determined, but can be denied where needed. Defendant must be informed of date and time of appearance through court notice. If there is no plea bargain, then trial should begin. Defendant has the right to appeal if they are convicted at trial. 

Here, if one aspect of procedural law is taken into consideration which requires that defendant to be arraigned on the charges, then it can be very difficult to handle criminals on international grounds, possibly because foreign land may not allow access to the alleged criminals on various legal grounds. As far as non-US citizens are concerned, they hold the same rights on most aspects as that of US citizens. As for instance, they have the right to stay silent, and other such aspects. They are entitled for same procedural laws that are applicable to the US citizens. If the cases of Yick Wo v. Hapkins (1886), Wong Wing v. United Stages (1896), and Phyler v. 1982 are taken into consideration then it can be said that the courts have used the constitution as a living document and interpreted it based on changing needs and demands of people (Longley, 2020). The courts have stated that the individuals should not be deprived of their right to liberty, property, or life without law’s due process. Moreover, within a given jurisdiction, a person cannot be denied equal protection of laws. These applies to everyone without considering the fact that whether they are from different race, country, or colour. 

Violation

The criminals found in the current case belonged to three countries – United States, Canada, and Australia. Citizenship status of criminals can impact the adherence to the procedural due process by the US government. A case of Russian Spies can be taken here who were related to Operation Ghost Stories. In it, the captured Russian nationals were non-US and did not have dual citizenship. They were charged as foreign nationals despite their being in US for several years as fake citizen. Even if the criminals were from different country, they had to go through the American laws and regulations. And where the spies were located did not impact the adherence to the procedural due process (Chouinard, 2018). Considering this case as the ground it can be stated that the two foreign criminals can be apprehended and proper due process can be followed for them as well. However, there is a need to have procedures in place that can ensure that the tensions between the related countries – Canada and Australia – do not escalate in any manner. As with the case of Russian spy case, the perpetrator have broken various international and national laws. 

When the crime took place, few criminals were on United States soil, whereas others were on international soil. This certainly interferes with the investigation and apprehension of the criminals. This scenario required that the US government has good relationship with the country from where the crime has generated. If this would not have been the case, then the access to criminal might have been prevented. In most of the scenarios, the act of reciprocity and good relations and existing procedures provided needed support to handle the international criminal scenarios (Kohen et al, 2018). Some of the charges that were included in the indictment of these four individuals were copyright infringement, mail fraud, wire fraud, identity theft, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and trade secret theft. As per law, infringing copyright requires penalty from $200 to $150,000 per work infringed. For mail fraud person may have to give fine up to $1 million and up to 30 years imprisonment. For wire fraud carries maximum 20 years sentence and up to $250,000 fine for individual and $500,000 for organizations. Identify theft carriers up to a year in jail for misdemeanour, and many years for felony. Trade secret theft carries fine up to $250,000. Ad for computer crime may attract 10 years in jail. 

International Agencies and Law

Cooperation with international agencies and abiding by the international laws are vital to ensure that the matter is handled as smoothly as possible without giving opportunity to conflicts. The relationships with foreign countries extensively supports in charging criminals on foreign soils. The perpetrators were from Canada and Australia. And these two countries have been strong follower of international laws and regulations and have supported US on various aspects. Its laws are almost on the similar ground to that of US as far as international crimes are concerned. Therefore, receiving support from these two governments are not expected to be much of a challenge. Political relationships do play significant role in determining that whether America will get cooperation despite other countries’ similar view on international crimes. Fortunately, the relationship between the government of the USA and Canada and Australia is harmonious. During the case, the United States provided all the necessary information required by the foreign governments to make the decisions. The conspirators pleaded guilty and agreed to crime except one who is still in Australia. And further actions are needed in order to ensure that the fifth perpetrator is also captured. The FBI received support and assistance from Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, the Peel Regional Police of Ontario, Canada, and Western Australia Police. The organizations from Canada and Australia could only provide necessary support from within their jurisdiction. However, OIA provided on several grounds such as extradition of fugitives, legal advices, and maintaining international relations.

Conclusion

Based on the overall analysis, it can be stated that the case has been handled quite effectively by all the related agencies. The investigation ensured that the criminals are apprehended and properly charged. The criminals have been charged with various violation of laws. Only four criminals pleaded guilty and one criminal has not yet been apprehended who is from Australia. Here, it can be recommended that the local agency should have built better relationship with the Australian agencies so that they could have helped in speedy finding of the perpetrator and punishment.

References

Chouinard, K. (2018). International Criminal Justice. Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.4172/2223-5833.1000238

Kohen, I., Kohen, I., & IDG Contributor Network. (2018). Protecting intellectual property against cyberattack. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from https://www.csoonline.com/article/3245310/protecting-intellectual-property-against-cyberattack.html.

Longley, R. (2020). Do Undocumented Immigrants Have Constitutional Rights?. Retrieved 26 April 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/undocumented-immigrants-and-constitutional-rights-3321849

Fourth Member of International Computer Hacking Ring Pleads Guilty to Hacking and Intellectual Property Theft Conspiracy — FBI. (2015). Retrieved 26 April 2020, from https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/baltimore/news/press-releases/fourth-member-of-international-computer-hacking-ring-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-and-intellectual-property-theft-conspiracy

Woolf, N. (2014). Hackers charged with stealing over $100m in US army and Xbox technology. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/30/four-hackers-charged-stealing-xbox-army-technology