San Francisco man to plead guilty in Pa. to credit scam

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A San Francisco man is scheduled to plead guilty this afternoon before a federal judge here for allegedly stealing credit card and identity information from tens of thousands of people by hacking into the computers of financial institutions and credit card processing centers.

A federal grand jury here indicted Max Ray Butler, 37, nearly two years ago on three counts of wire fraud and two counts of transferring stolen identity information.

Butler was charged in Pittsburgh because he allegedly sold more than 100 credit card numbers and related information to a western Pennsylvania resident cooperating with the investigation.

Federal prosecutors say they’ll detail the scam when Butler pleads guilty.