Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - A tool with Criminal & Civil Consequences

The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act provides criminal and civil penalties for wrongfully accessing a computer to do harmful things [maybe some of the hard drive damage done by some of Postmus' assessor buds triggers liability under this law??]
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While the CFAA has been used by companies against departing company employees who improperly delete, alter or take information, the CFAA also can apply when companies access competitors' websites to for competitive benefit in violation of websites' terms of service, creating fictitious profiles to snoop about what people are doing online or wrongfully access people's paid online subscription services [wonder if this may include Mitzelfelt's accessing county records to generate a label list for his political mailers while a sitting county supervisor?].
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CFAA §1030(g) provides for a civil remedy and requires a $5,000 loss. In addition to compensatory damages, the injured plaintiff can seek injunctive relief or other equitable relief. The statute appears short (losses within one year of the action's filing)
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A "loss" counting toward the $5,000 threshold under CFAA is not stolen intellectual property, regardless of its value, nor are privacy invasions and/or personally identifiable information, regardless of how valuable. The "damage" must be a "cost"
to the victim like the costs to investigate, respond or remedy the damage the violation caused to the data or computer, any interruption of service, any fees a computer forensics firm charges to secure the violated computer or to investigate the damage caused to the computer and restore lost or damaged data.
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A nice link and more detailed treatment of the statute and tactics is found at http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202537182389&rss=cc as is the email address of the attorney in Texas who wrote the infomative article.
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Definitely a "thinking-out-of-the-box" tool.

Cabrialas Gets Slammed for Potential Conflict of Interest--Why Wasn't Mitzelfelt??

In the world of what is and is not a conflict of interest, I am forever learning that being a protected and sacred cow appears to be the key. Victorville Mayor Pro Tem Rudy Cabriallas gets criticized by the Fair Political Practices Commission for his wife allegedly taking something akin to a commission for contracts apparently awarded to Hispanic Chamber of Commerce members that Rudy Cabriallas' vote had something to do with (whether true or not is for smarter people than I to figure out). Rex Guttierrez gets a do-little job at the Assessor's Office courtesy of Postmus and allegedly some developers and he goes to jail after two trials. Adam Aleman gets work-on-politics-on-taxpayer-money job courtesy of Postmus and he gets charged, pleads guilty and may yet face jail. Brad Mitzelfelt's wife gets a do-little-because-development-is-pretty-dead-right-now-for-a-high-figure-salary job involving real estate issues (wasn't her background, like Zook & Watson the newspaper business?) and no one seems to care (admittedly she did quit it eventually but didn't Rex also quit). Brad Mitzelfelt's boss, Postmus, is up to his gills in "guilty pleas" on abuses of public office. Why is Brad Mitzelfelt while chief of staff at the supervisor's office and the person to whom Aleman & Guttierrez reported at various points in time, living such a charmed (and uncharged) existence? Does anyone think that Postmus, who was a meth user, had the focus to run the machine all the time--esp during his hospitalizations? Mitzelfelt and two ex-deputy deputy sheriffs (on staff as field reps) didn't know of the illegal activities?? Yeah right.....

Oh Where Oh Where has Mike Ramos gone? Another Charter School Disaster on his Watch?

Gail Fry, a Staff Writer for the Alpenhorn News (San Bernardino County) reported on another scandal possibly in the works involving the Adelanto Charter Academy.

The Alpenhorn News indicated that convicted former San Bernardino County Supervisor and Assessor Bill Postmus and former Assembly Candidate and Hesperia Unified School District Trustee Anthony Riley are people somehow allegedly involved. What is it this time? [the Alpenhorn News reports they/someone allegedly received money from the Adelanto Charter Academy without performing services to earn it?--move over Rex, your cellmates are on the way?].

The Alpenhorn News also says that "implicated in the developing scandal are San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt’s Field Representative Jessie Flores, Adam Aleman, Charles Steven Cox, and John Dino DeFazio, two of these individuals currently facing criminal charges while a third already pled guilty in another case. All of these individuals are shown in supporting documentation as tied to contracts with the Adelanto Charter Academy ("ACA"), a charter school authorized by the Adelanto School District"... ACA contracted services with Professional Charter Management, Inc., a California corporation in exchange for 15 percent of ACA’s revenue and Educational Development, Inc., an Arizona corporation in exchange for 5 percent of ACA’s revenue. Professional Charter Management, Inc. dissolved December 18, 2010, with its chief executive officer being Mitzelfeldt’s Field Representative Jessie Flores, its chief financial officer John Dino De Fazio and Kari Murdock as its agent for service of process according to records at the California Secretary of State."

Blogger Bob's comments:
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(1) The choice of the word "revenue" is nothing less than self incrimination--schools don't generate "revenue"--they spend state tax money--that the State money dedicated to our kids is referred to as "revenue" is insulting;
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(2) Before we get too excited about another San Bernardino Charter School being used to conduit money to personal, non-educational use, what has happened to the prosecution involving the last Charter School in this County? (and the money lost)??
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(3) Aren't there statute of limitations problems (is the DA's office on this?? State AG?? or ??)
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If Educational Development, Inc. dissolved in April 2008 [putting aside the fact that they may have taken money notwithstanding the fact they weren't authorized to take money--e.g. transact business], aren't we at the end of the three year statute for felony prosecutions?
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(4) When will these charter schools quit being used to bleed our public school dollars for private agendas is what I want to know?
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The school board members (and their superintendents) are not doing their due diligence cutting checks to suspended companies (if that is what is happening). Isn't there also a defalcation of duty involved? Discretionary immunity may only go so far (as Rex Guttierrez now knows), putting aside the conflict of interest involved by theses school board members getting the support of the machine politicians benefiting from these payments.
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(5) Recovery idea: Don't the school district buy a public official liability insurance for these board members? If there has been a breach of duty or a violation of a statute, isn't that a covered claim?