Joshua Streit Charged for Allegedly Attempting to Extort $150K From MLB

Joshua Streit has been charged with extortion, accessing a protected computer to commit fraud for personal gain, wire fraud and illicit digital transmission after he allegedly illegally streamed Major League Baseball games and attempted to extort MLB for $150,000, per the Associated Press.

Streit allegedly threatened to expose the league's internet infrastructure vulnerabilities in return for the six-figure sum.

A complaint against Streit was unsealed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, per the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, which also alleged that the 30-year-old resident of St. Louis Park, Minnesota illegally streamed games from the NBA, NHL and NFL.

The press release read in part:

"Beginning in or about 2017, to in or about August 2021, Joshua Streit a/k/a, “Joshua Brody,” the defendant, operated a website that streamed copyrighted content, primarily livestreamed games from major professional sports leagues, including MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL, which Streit had no authorization to stream. Streit obtained the copyrighted content by gaining unauthorized access to the websites for those sports leagues via misappropriated login credentials from legitimate users of those websites. One of the victim sports leagues sustained losses of approximately $3 million due to Streit's conduct."

Per the release, the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit is spearheading the case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Dina McLeod as its lead.