Parkville Man Pleads Guilty to Computer Hacking, Accessing Child Pornography

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Parkville, Mo., man who was under investigation for hacking into his former employer’s computer system, pleaded guilty in federal court today to both the intrusion charge and to using a computer to view online child pornography.

Jacob Raines, 38, of Parkville, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to one count of computer intrusion and one count of accessing a computer in order to view child pornography over the Internet.

Raines worked as the information technology manager for American Crane & Tractor Parts in Kansas City, Kan., from July 2004 until his resignation on March 28, 2014. The company’s new IT manager removed Raines’s computer passwords and made other security changes associated with the transition to a new IT manager. However, while utilizing the computer previously assigned to Raines, the new IT manager noticed that someone had logged into the computer remotely and copied files to an off-site server.

An examination revealed the company’s proprietary source code files and file folders were copied to Raines’s remote server during several sessions from May 16 to May 18, 2014. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Raines’s residence on April 2, 2015, for evidence of the computer intrusion and theft of trade secrets. Copies of the proprietary source code for the company were on Raines’s home computer.

This proprietary source code is considered a trade secret by American Crane & Tractor Parts, which provides it a competitive advantage in its industry. The value of the proprietary source code exceeds $5,000, and the copying of this source code would provide a commercial advantage and a private financial gain to others.

Investigators also discovered that Raines had used his home computers and hard drives to access child pornography over the Internet since Nov. 13, 2013. Raines utilized peer-to-peer, file-sharing software to search for child pornography. Investigators discovered more than 7,000 files of child pornography images and videos on a Memorex DVD.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, the government will argue for a sentence of up to 7 years in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the FBI.