SpaceX is making headlines, and this time, the drama isn't about CEO Elon Musk — or Mars.
Kelvin Rodriguez-Moya, 35, was arrested for allegedly illegally trafficking 675 SpaceX Starlink terminals he had purchased with stolen credit card information and hacking existing customers.
Starlink terminals are primarily used to bring Internet access to remote areas around the world via SpaceX satellites.
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The equipment, which is valued at about $400,000, was said to be sent to a home in New Jersey before attempting to truck them to Newark.
“Typically, what happens is that the suspect would use these devices to resell and make some sort of monetary gain,” Lawrence City Police Chief Sgt. Chris Longo said. “We received information from a resident that there was a large number of deliveries going to a residence within our town.
Rodriguez-Moya reportedly hauled in about 220 pieces of equipment in his truck while he was en route to Newark.
Rodriguez-Moya does not live at the address where the satellites were delivered, and the current residents were unaware of what was happening.
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SpaceX director of risk and payment fraud, Bennet Woo, called this terminal recovery “the largest fraud recovery to date by an order of magnitude”.
Rodriguez-Moya was formally charged with receiving stolen property and trafficking in stolen property (both in the second degree) and has a detention hearing set for March 8.