Pottsville man who sold hacked Snapchat photos pleads guilty in Scranton federal court

Sep. 19—A 34-year-old Pottsville man admitted Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Scranton he was paid as much as $60,000 to hack into the Snapchat accounts of several women to pilfer private explicit photographs.

Brandon Boyer, who went by the pseudonym CentreCountyImagez on the Kik messaging app, pleaded guilty to one felony count of obtaining information from protected computers.

U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion accepted the plea.

Investigators uncovered Boyer's identity by tracing Venmo payments to CentreCountyImagez back to Boyer's Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union bank account, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey St. John said.

Boyer is employed as a registry specialist in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. According to state records, he receives nearly $62,000 a year.

Boyer and his attorney, Craig E. Kauzlarich, declined to comment after the hearing.

"We'll save our comment for sentencing," Kauzlarich said.

Between February 2020 and February 2022, Boyer accessed the Snapchat accounts of dozens of women using phishing tactics, according to federal prosecutors and court filings.

Men who came across Boyer on anonymous online message boards paid him to access private photographs of women they know through work and school, St. John said.

Investigators did not find evidence Boyer accessed the accounts of minors, St. John said.

Two people who paid Boyer — a man in Louisville, Kentucky and a man in Pittsburgh — gave statements to federal investigators.

Mannion asked Boyer if he knew at the time he accessed those Snapchat accounts that his actions had been illegal.

At first, Boyer said no — an answer which nearly derailed his plea because Mannion reasoned the matter should be brought to a jury if Boyer did not believe his actions illegal.

Boyer corrected himself a few beats later by saying his use of a phony name online indicated he must have known it was wrong.

Mannion did not immediately set a sentencing date. Boyer is free until then, albeit under supervision.

The judge did not restrict Boyer's ability to access the internet but warned him not to use the Kik app or frequent the web's seedier corners.

Boyer faces a potential maximum sentence of five years behind bars, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.