American Greed profiles high-stakes cybercrime: Computer Hacker Max Ray Butler, also known as Max Ray Vision, or his nickname Iceman, had an audacious plan to rule the illegal black market in stolen credit card numbers. As part of the scheme, Butler hacked into financial institutions, credit card processing centers, and other secure computers in order to acquire credit card account information and other personal identification information. He then created actual plastic credit cards with the stolen numbers. Many of these cards were provided to an accomplice, Christopher Aragon, based in the Los Angeles area, who used the cards and a team of associates to buy merchandise for sale. Butler sold the rest of the card numbers outright over the Internet. But angry hackers and pesky Federal agents were looking for him while he led the Federal Government on a year-long chase. The heat was on -- literally. The temperature in Max Butler's safe house was so high it was nearly unbearable. It was the equipment's fault. Butler had crammed several servers and laptops into the studio apartment high above San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, and the mass of processors and displays produced a sweltering heat that pulsed through the room. Butler brought in some fans, but they didn't provide much relief. The electric bill was so high that the apartment manager suspected Butler of operating a hydroponic dope farm. In the end, Max Butler was caught and convicted. On September 5, 2007 in San Francisco, Butler was arrested by the United States Secret Service. On February 12, 2010, Butler was sentenced to 13 years in prison, followed by five years supervised release, and was ordered to pay $27.5 million in restitution on his conviction on wire fraud charges.
