Federal authorities have accused a Minnesota man of attempting to extort $ 150,000 from Major League Baseball after hacking into his computer system. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have accused Joshua Streit, 30, of illegally streaming content from the MLB, National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL).
Law enforcement said in a press release that between 2017 and August 2021, Streit operated a website where he illegally streamed live sports league matches for profit. He gained unauthorized access to league websites and improperly stole login credentials from legitimate subscribers, according to authorities, and his scheme led to losses of around $ 3 million for one of the “victimized sports leagues.” “.
In addition, authorities said, Streit, also known as Joshua Brody, tried to extort $ 150,000 from the MLB by threatening to advertise vulnerabilities on his site that he claimed to have exploited.
“Streit initiated the extortion scheme at the same time he was exploiting MLB’s computer systems to gain unauthorized access to copyrighted content he streamed for profit,” the press release said.
Streit faces five criminal offenses including telematics fraud, accessing a protected computer, illicit digital transmission, and sending interstate threats.
