Anonymous Members Arrested in FBI Raids

The FBI has arrested sixteen members of the online hacktivist group, Anonymous in the United States in connection with the hacking of PayPal. Along with the arrests in the US, one person in the UK and four others were arrested in the Netherlands, as well. According to a report by CNET, an indictment was filed last week in San Jose, California, naming fourteen people who are accused of conspiring to deliberately damage protected computers at PayPal last December in payback for PayPal suspending WikiLeaks’ account to prevent supporters from donating to the whistleblower site.

FBI arrests alleged members of Anonymous

These arrests were made in various parts of the United States and the defendants were to make appearances throughout the day in federal courts in their areas. Following the raids conducted by the FBI as part of the investigation into the hackings, the alleged members of Anonymous range in the age group from 20 to 42. The US department of Justice stated that more than 75 searches have taken place in the U.S. to date as part of the investigations. Tflow, an alleged member of LulzSec was arrested in the UK and is said to be a key member of the group who are loosely associated with Anonymous.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

According to the report, the Justice Department stated that if found guilty, those arrested could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, while each count of conspiracy carries a maximum of 5 years in jail along with a fine of $250,000.