Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors filed in Boston on Friday, Albert Gonzalez would serve a sentence of 15 to 25 years after pleading guilty to a 19-count indictment. He would also forfeit some US$2.8 million in cash, a Miami condo, a car and expensive jewellery.
Gonzalez, 28, is charged with swiping credit and debit-card numbers of more than 170 million accounts.
Gonzalez was arrested in Miami in 2008. He had once been an informant for the US Secret Service.
Apple, Unicom reach deal on iPhone
China Unicom Limited said Friday it will sell Apple Inc's iPhone in China this year, ending months of rumour about when the hit phone would make its long-delayed debut in the world's most populous mobile market.
The phones are expected to go on sale in the fourth quarter under a multi-year deal struck between the two companies, Unicom executives said in Hong Kong. They declined to give financial details or reveal how much the iPhone would cost, saying only that the price would be "competitive."
Unicom, one of three major state-owned carriers, would be the first Chinese phone company to formally support the iPhone, though thousands of unlocked iPhones brought in from other markets are in use in China. It is the only company in China that supports the network standard needed for the iPhone, known as WCDMA.
China's mobile market trails the United States, Japan and some others in financial size, but it has 650 million mobile phone accounts and is seen as a major prize for foreign firms.
"This definitely opens up a a window for Apple to get into this tremendous market," said Edward Yu, chief executive at Analysys International, a Beijing-based technology research firm. "But we still need to see the real product to determine whether this will play with the mainstream China population and how the market reacts."
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, reported last month that the sales of the popular iPhone helped to boost its latest quarterly earnings by 15 per cent to US$1.2 billion despite the US economic slowdown.
Police nab Internet 'fraud king'
Italian police said Friday that a man known through Europe as the 'fraud king' had been arrested in France for swindling as much as €500,000 (US$718,000) out of tourists and other unsuspecting people through Internet scams.
Carlo Rao, 31, conned people out of their money by getting them to wire him down payments for phony tourist apartments, vacations and other goods that he never provided, said Diego Acqui, who headed the investigation for Rome police.
Rao was arrested by French police in the southern city of Toulon on Thursday after he was traced to a Western Union office where he had gone to pick up his latest wire transfer, Acqui said. While the name on the transfer form was fake, the address was correct and police picked him up at his home.
Acqui said Rao had been conducting the scam for five to six years, starting out by offering non-existent items, like cellphones and jewels on eBay and collecting money that unsuspecting buyers would wire him in advance.
Aruba refinery closed indefinitely
Valero Energy Corp said Wednesday it plans to close its Aruba refinery indefinitely.
Decisions are yet to be made about the 780 permanent employees, but nearly all contract workers will be laid off.
The refinery, which had processed about 275,000 barrels a day, has been shuttered since mid-July, as falling prices for its refined products made the plant less profitable. The San Antonio-based refiner had said it would decide in August whether to restart operations.
"Unfortunately, the difference in light crude price and that of sour crude has not increased and the product margins remain low, making the operation of this refinery unprofitable," Valero said in its Wednesday statement.
Bill Klesse, Valero's board chairman and CEO, said, "When the global economy improves, we expect that product demand, sour crude oil production, and refining margins will also improve."
A spokesman for the Independent Oil Workers' Union of Aruba, which represents most of the plant's employees, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Valero, the largest refining company in the US, bought the Aruba plant in 2004 but has been looking to sell it since last year. No date had been set for a sale, and the company has declined to provide further details or prospective buyers.
The facility processed heavy crude into distillate products that were shipped to US refineries to be made into lighter fuels including gasoline.