According to court documents, 32-year-old Marquis Hooper of California and his wife, Natasha Chalk, stole the PII of more than 9,000 people and sold it to fraudsters through the dark web and encrypted messaging platforms for $160,000 in bitcoin. To acquire the PII, Hooper created an account on a company that maintains a database that contains the PII of millions of individuals. The company allows its customers to download reports with all of an individual’s PII information.

To open an account on the platform, Hooker claimed he had been ordered to open an account on the paltform and use it to verify the information of Navy personnel. The company approved the account on September 9, 2018.

Hooker and Chalk consequently ran tens of thousands of searches on the company’s database. By December 18, when the company suspended Hooker’s account, the couple had acquired the PII of over 9,000 individuals.

In March 2019, Hooker attempted to open another account on the company’s platform. He asked a Navy officer to claim he had been asked by the Navy to use the company’s database to conduct background checks on Navy personnel. Hopper and his accomplice attempted to use fraudulent documents to convince the company to approve the account. Their attempts failed as the company flagged the account for fraud.

Hooker and Chalk were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and multiple counts of wire fraud and identity theft in a 16-count indictment filed in January 2021. The couple pleaded guilty to the charges in March 2023.

Hooker was sentenced to five years and five months in prison on October 16, 2023. His wife will be sentenced on November 20.