[ISN] Segal offers $10,000 reward for info on ex-worker

[InfoSec News]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-segal20.html

BY STEVE WARMBIR AND TIM NOVAK 
Staff Reporters  
April 20, 2004

In an unusual move, the firm of indicted insurance czar Michael Segal 
is offering a $10,000 reward on a Web site for more information about 
a former employee who the firm accuses of hacking into company 
computers and sharing files with competitors and government 
informants.

Jury selection began Monday in Segal's criminal trial, but a Segal 
spokeswoman, Kitty Kurth, said the Web site had nothing to do with the 
criminal case. Rather, it's related to a civil lawsuit Segal has filed 
against former employees, including the alleged hacker, David Cheley, 
whom Segal accuses of conspiring to destroy his company, Near North 
Insurance Brokerage.

Segal is accused of siphoning more than $20 million from a key firm 
account and spending the money on personal and business expenditures.

Segal has brought up the alleged hacking and sharing of e-mails with 
government informants in his criminal case. However, the federal judge 
overseeing his criminal case would not grant a hearing to Segal on the 
matter.

The site, hackingreward.com [1], had been up for a few weeks, Kurth
said.  The name was registered on March 29 this year, records show.
The reward was offered after federal authorities told Near North that
Cheley would not be prosecuted for any alleged hacking, Kurth said.

The site offers a $10,000 reward for new information about hacking 
into Near North's computer system. It prominently features a 
photograph of Cheley, 33, of Chicago.

It also lists a former home address of Cheley, pages from his Web site 
that listed his qualifications as a computer programmer, as well as 
former employers.

"Boy, oh, boy," Cheley said as he looked at the Web site for the first 
time Monday. 

"Wow," he said later. "These people are something else."

Cheley, who denies hacking into the Near North system, said the 
litigation has destroyed him and sapped his savings.

He said he feels like a scapegoat in the matter.

"I'm not part of any conspiracy," Cheley said. "These guys have pretty 
much finished me."

[1] http://www.hackingreward.com/