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CHARLOTTE, NC – A Charlotte man is looking at serious time after a federal jury convicted him yesterday in a brazen cyber extortion plot targeting a major D.C.-based tech firm. Cameron Curry, 27, faces years behind bars for threatening to leak sensitive company and employee data unless he received $2.5 million in cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors laid out a case showing Curry, a former data analyst with the company, used his inside access to pilfer personnel files and other confidential information. When his contract wasn’t renewed, he allegedly turned rogue, adopting the online alias “Loot” and unleashing a barrage of threatening emails starting in December 2023.
The evidence, presented during the three-day trial before Judge Kenneth D. Bell, showed Curry sent over 60 emails promising to expose the stolen data – including employees’ personal information – and damage the company’s reputation if his ransom wasn’t paid in crypto. Federal agents raided Curry’s residence in January, seizing electronic devices presumably containing the stolen data.
Curry was found guilty on six counts of interstate communication with the intent to extort. US Attorney Russ Ferguson’s office for the Western District of North Carolina is prosecuting the case, and sentencing details have not yet been released.