A Massachusetts man under investigation in the hacking of a Boston
hospital was rescued from a sailboat off the coast of Cuba by a Disney
cruise ship and arrested Wednesday, weeks after relatives told police
they had last heard from him, authorities said.
Martin Gottesfeld and
his wife made a distress call Tuesday from a sailboat and were picked up
by the nearby ship, federal prosecutors said.
Gottesfeld, 31, of
Somerville, was arrested Wednesday on a conspiracy charge after the
Disney ship returned to Miami. He's charged in a 2014 computer attack at
Boston Children's Hospital in the name of the hacking group Anonymous.
Prosecutors say the FBI searched Gottesfeld's home in 2014, so he knew about the federal investigation.
Last
week, the FBI learned that Somerville police did not find Gottesfeld
during a well-being check at his apartment after his employer and family
members reported they hadn't heard from him in weeks.
Then on
Tuesday, an FBI agent in the Bahamas called the FBI's Boston office to
report that Gottesfeld and his wife were on a Disney Cruise Line ship in
the Bahamas after being picked up not far from Cuba. The couple had
luggage and three laptop computers with them.
Authorities say the
computer attack was in protest of the hospital's treatment of Justina
Pelletier, a Connecticut teenager who was at the center of a custody
dispute based on conflicting medical diagnoses.
Tufts Medical
Center had treated Justina for mitochondrial disease, a disorder that
affects cellular energy production. But Boston Children's Hospital later
diagnosed her problems as psychiatric. When Justina's parents rejected
that diagnosis and tried to take her back to Tufts, the Massachusetts
Department of Children and Families took custody of her, setting off a
bitter dispute.
Justina's case drew national media attention as
various groups cited it as an example of governmental interference with
parental rights.
An affidavit filed in court by an FBI agent said
that on March 23, 2014, a video was posted on YouTube calling for action
against a Massachusetts hospital in response to its treatment of her.
The girl was not identified in the FBI affidavit, but Children's
Hospital confirmed at the time that its computer network had been
attacked over the Pelletier case.
The video was narrated by a
computer-generated voice and stated that Anonymous "will punish all
those held accountable and will not relent until (Justina) is free."
The
video directed viewers to a posting on the website that contained
necessary information about the hospital's server to initiate an attack
against it.
On April 19, 2014, the hospital reported an attack
against the server identified in the posting. The attack disrupted the
hospital's network, took its website out of service and cost more than
$300,000 to respond to and mitigate, according to the affidavit.
During
a search of his home in October 2014, Gottesfeld admitted posting the
video but denied participating in any attacks, the FBI agent said in an
affidavit.
Tor Ekeland, a New York attorney who represents
Gottesfeld, declined to comment, saying he hadn't had a chance to review
the criminal complaint or speak to Gottesfeld.
Gottesfeld is
charged with conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to protected
computers. During an initial appearance Wednesday in US District Court
in Miami, he agreed to voluntary detention pending a hearing in US
District Court in Boston. No date has been set yet for that hearing.
Representatives for Children's Hospital and Disney Cruise Line did not return calls seeking comment.