A former litigation associate at a Los Angeles law firm was sentenced Monday to five months behind bars and a year of supervised release for illegally extracting insider information he was planning to use to extort the firm.
Michael Potere, 32, pleaded guilty in October to a federal misdemeanor count of unauthorized computer access.
The Los Angeles resident was arrested last June for trying to extort $210,000 and a piece of pricey artwork from the global law firm identified as “DLF,” according to his plea agreement filed in federal court.
Potere admitted using another person’s access code to download sensitive documents, then threatening to leak the information to the legal blog Above The Law unless his demands for the money and artwork were met.
Prosecutors said Potere devised the plot after the firm refused to keep him employed up to the date where he planned to enter a political science degree program in the fall.
Potere was indicted last July on federal charges of extortion and attempted extortion affecting interstate commerce as well as transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort. The felony counts could have resulted in a maximum penalty of up to 22 years in prison.
–City News Service