Trial Begins in Bloomberg Extortion
The trial of a Kazakhstan man charged with hacking into Bloomberg L.P. computers opened yesterday with prosecutors painting Michael Bloomberg as a do-gooder who stood up to an extortionist. Meanwhile, the defense claimed their client was an “entrepreneur” who was merely seeking payment for trying to show Bloomberg the flaws in his computer-information system. Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Robert Strang charged that Oleg Zezev, 29, is a mercenary hacker who used a Bloomberg financial computer at his Kazakhstan securities office to break into the Bloomberg company’s computer database in March 2000. Full Story