Federal Jury Convicts Ex-Global Crossing Worker of Threats

December 5, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A former Global Crossing Ltd. employee was convicted of using a Web site to threaten executives at the now bankrupt telecommunications company.

A federal jury in Los Angeles has found Steven William Sutcliffe guilty of identity theft and making threats to injure the executives in Internet postings that began after he was fired from the company’s Beverly Hills office in September 2001, according to an Associated Press report.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 22. Assistant US Attorney Elena Duarte said Sutcliffe faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

Sutcliffe, 42, directed threats to then-chairman Gary Winnick and others. Prosecutors said he wrote in one posting directed at an employee: “I will personally send you back to the hell from where you came.”

Sutcliffe represented himself during the final weeks of the trial. In closing remarks, he sang a song and told jurors that he “was just publishing information” when posting hundreds of company employees’ Social Security numbers and maps to some of their homes. He also said he was targeted because his Web site was critical of the company.

A federal judge in New Hampshire, where Sutcliffe was first arrested, last year threw out charges that he had violated federal privacy laws. The case was then moved to the West Coast.

Global Crossing built the world’s most extensive high-speed fiber- optic network before collapsing in January 2002 under $12.4 billion in debt. The federal government in September approved its sale to a telecommunications company owned by the Singapore government.

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