Limousine executive guilty of hacking rival’s emails
A Las Vegas limousine company executive was convicted Friday of hacking into the emails of his former employer.
John Sinagra, vice president and general manager of VIP Limousines of Nevada, was indicted last year on charges of obtaining information from a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.
Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes Friday afternoon before convicting him of both counts.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Sinagra, who once was charged as a mob hitman in a sensational New York murder case, hacked into the emails of rival Las Vegas Limousines, owned by Frias Transportation, and stole key information.
Sinagra was accused of using his knowledge of the email system at Las Vegas Limousines, where he worked before he was fired in July 2009, to access 20 email accounts from November 2009 to November 2010.
During closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chu said that Sinagra stole 1,100 emails either for a commercial advantage or for private financial gain “as he tried to keep his struggling company afloat.”
Chu argued the value of the stolen information exceeded $5,000, and the jury agreed.
Defense attorney Joseph Giaramita Jr. of New York argued his client was framed by the larger limousine company, which wanted to put his company out of business.
The lawyer said Sinagra acknowledged he looked at a few emails, but the executive did not benefit financially from the information.
“This case could have been a civil suit,” Giaramita told the jury.
U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro presided over the four-day criminal trial.
She is scheduled to sentence Sinagra, who remains free, on May 31.
In 2006, Sinagra and a former FBI agent were charged in a 1990 gangland slaying in New York of an 18-year-old man who had witnessed an underworld slaying.
Sinagra was accused of fatally shooting the man, but a New York judge dismissed the case in 2007.
Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.
