(e: I missed the $25M proceeds. Changes my thoughts a little, but still, 10 yrs seems like a lot if T-mobile was the only victim... seems like taking all his money and then some, compensating T-Mobile for actual costs, and giving the rest to the local public school or whatever would be better all-around and we can all shed some crocodile tears for the telcos.)
That is just a contract that one side wants to break. It is extremely easy for anyone who does not want a locked to carrier phone to buy an unlocked phone and use it with any carrier they want.
T-Mobile already receives an incredible amount of assistance from the state, both direct and indirect. Erasing an eighth of someone's life at the taxpayer's expense on top of all of that seems like a bit much.
And don't worry, I too realize the telcos are people too. I stipulated we would all cry crocodile tears for the telco and pay them back for whatever their actual losses were (which were likely a tiny fraction of his proceeds).
I am fairly sympathetic to white-collar crime but after he made his first million he could have sat down and thought about the morality of it all. He was already rich so he had the leisure time to contemplate perhaps not breaking the law...
Now, if he decided the law was immoral and it was correct to break it in protest then that is defensible but that's not the case here.
Instead, he continued to break the law but labeled it as “official t mobile unlocks” in order to trick people who had no intention of becoming criminal action into giving him money to do the crime. That to me is beyond the line.
For me, this is akin to selling weed labeled as expensive oregano because you want to expand your market beyond potheads. People deserve to know what they are getting into.
Not that the SMS 2FA is the appropriate way to be doing things, but it is what it is, and the government is not wanting to take on any liability, and the mobile networks do not want any liability (nor should it be foisted upon them), keeping the punishment high for stuff like this seems like the best we can hope for.
The losses probably substantially exceed his proceeds because these unlocking services enable all kinds of other fraud. If he charges $50 to unlock a $1000 phone that someone got on credit and will never pay for and that will be exported to China where it can now be freely used thanks to the unlock, then what is T-Mobile's loss amount - $50 or $1000?
Lack of motivation. Relatively few people on the prosecution side truly care about winning, especially as time passes.
Cases can easily take years, personnel changes ruin everything.
If you have money and aren't accused of anything totally crazy, you can easily completely ruin the governments chances by simply getting a few of the main people involved private sector jobs. This happens every day.