Madonna 'Rebel Heart' Hacker Facing Up to Five Years in Prison

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Feb 27, 2015

The Israeli man who was arrested last month for allegedly leaking demos from Madonna's Rebel Heart LP has now been formally indicted and could face up to five years in prison over hack-related charges.

Though his identity was concealed at the time of arrest, it's now been revealed that the suspected hacker is Ari Lederman. He's now been formally charged with computer trespassing, prohibited secret monitoring, copyright infringement and obstructing investigation.

According to court documents obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, Lederman allegedly got access to Rebel Heart files from private cloud accounts belonging to producer Sara Zambreno, engineer Angie Teo and musical director Kevin Antunes. The email account of Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, was also apparently compromised.

While Lederman is said to have leaked demo versions of Rebel Heart material, it's further implied in the court documents that this might not be the first time he'd pirated the Material Girl; 2012 single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" was also said to be lifted from Zambreno's cloud and sold to an unspecified person.

The leaking industry might not be as lucrative as one would hope, as Lederman is said to have only made "tens of dollars to a thousand dollars" for plucking tracks from private cloud accounts and emails.

Moving on from the computer crime and copyright infringement charges, Lederman stands accused of obstructing investigation for allegedly telling an accomplice to erase all correspondence between them when he feared that authorities were on his tail. As previously reported, a private firm and the cyber crime unit of Israel's Lahav 433 had been investigating Lederman following a complaint from Oseary.

Rebel Heart arrives in full form March 10 via Boy Toy, Inc./Live Nation Worldwide/Interscope Records.

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