Hacker Demands Compensation in Bitcoins From US Government For Wrongful Imprisonment

A US hacker is demanding the US government compensate him in bitcoins for the lost days in prison after his wrongful imprisonment on charges of computer fraud in 2012.

Andrew Auernheimer, a 28-year-old from Fayetteville, Arkansas, is demanding more than 28,000 bitcoins, currently valued at more than $13m (£7.7m, €9.5m), from the US government. The professional hacker is known online by his pseudonym "weev".

In 2012, he spent 13 months in federal prison after he was convicted for allegedly exploiting a flaw in AT&T's servers exposing more than 114,000 iPad user email addresses. Later, he was set free on appeal.

In an open letter to the US government titled "an invoice for services rendered", he said the government should pay him one bitcoin per hour in prison.

"I have, over the course of three years, been made the victim of a criminal conspiracy by those in the federal government. This was a conspiracy of sedition and treason, perpetrated with violence by a limited number of federal agents to deprive me of my constitutional rights to a fair trial and unlawfully put me in prison," he writes in the letter.

He noted that he was taken from his childhood home at gunpoint on 18 January 2011, and was not allowed to freely exercise his liberties as a citizen until 11 April.

"That's 1179 days that you used my time that I am now billing you for (I gave you a discount by not including the last day). I am owed 28,296 Bitcoins," he says.

"I do not accept United States dollars, as it is the preferred currency of criminal organisations such as the FBI, DOJ, ATF, and Federal Reserve and I do not assist criminal racketeering enterprises."

He added that he will use the funds towards a "good and charitable cause" – "building a series of memorial groves for the greatest patriots of our generation".