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Third Individual Pleads Guilty to Illegally Accessing Confidential Passport Files
A third individual has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing numerous confidential passport application files, joining two others in the ongoing investigation by the State Department Office of Inspector General.
Gerald R. Lueders, 65, of Woodbridge, Va., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a one-count criminal information charging him with unauthorized computer access.
According to court documents, from June 1974 through September 2001, Lueders served as a Foreign Service Officer at the State Department. From fall 2005 to February 2008, he worked as a watch officer within the Office of Consular Affairs. Lueders has also been a retired annuitant since October 2001, serving as a recruitment coordinator in various State Department bureaus.
Lueders admitted that between July 2005 and February 2008, he logged onto the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS) database and viewed the passport applications of more than 50 celebrities, actors, politicians, musicians, athletes, family members, members of the media, business professionals, colleagues and other individuals identified in the press.
These confidential files are protected by the Privacy Act of 1974, and access by State Department employees is strictly limited to official government duties.
Lueders is the third current or former State Department employee to plead guilty in this continuing investigation. On Sept. 22, 2008, Lawrence C. Yontz, a former Foreign Service Officer and intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing hundreds of confidential passport files. Yontz was sentenced on Dec. 19, 2008, to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Armando O. Bonilla of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II. Lueders sentencing is scheduled for March 26, 2009.
Key Facts
- State: District of Columbia
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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