NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A Bahamian man pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he hacked into celebrities’ email accounts to steal unreleased movies and television scripts, personal information and sexually explicit videos that he then tried to sell.
Alonzo Knowles, who was arrested last month after allegedly trying to sell an undercover agent 15 scripts for $80,000, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to criminal copyright infringement and identity theft charges.
He had also offered to sell a recently finished script for a hip hop artist biopic, court papers said. The script was for “All Eyez On Me,” the upcoming biopic of Tupac Shakur, who died in a 1996 shooting, the film’s production company has said.
In court, Clay Kaminsky, Knowles’ lawyer, urged U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer to allow his client to be released on bail after spending nearly three weeks in jail following his Dec. 21 arrest. Engelmayer denied the request, saying the Bahamas resident faced an estimated three to five years in prison if convicted, which gives him a “compelling penal interest in fleeing.”
