John Shearer/Getty Images; Toff Oren/FilmMagicMemo to would-be hackers: do the crime and you'll be doing time.
Christopher Chaney, the Florida man busted last year for breaking into the private email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and more than 50 celebs and swiping their intimate photos, copped to hacking and other charges this morning in Los Angeles Federal Court.
So how much jail time is he facing?
Chaney, 35, pleaded guilty to nine felony counts including unauthorized computer access and wiretapping as part of a plea agreement ironed out with prosecutors. In return for his admission, the maximum he could receive is up to 60 years in prison (though it's unlikely he'll be serving anything like that much time).
Oh, and that's the lighter sentence. In fact, it could've been worse. Had he not cut a deal, the Jacksonville native would have faced more than 110 years in the Big House.
However, as Chaney has a previous conviction for mail fraud, Judge James Otero told him he may face even more time behind bars if it's determined he violated his probation.
The defendant turned up to enter his plea at today's court hearing wearing a black leather jacket and khakis and sporting a chin beard.
Chaney ended up in handcuffs last October after FBI agents working the case they called Operation Hackerazzi traced the electronic skullduggery to his account.
The feds accused him of hacking into the emails and cell phones of a slew of hot, young starlets among them Jessica Alba, Vanessa Hudgens, Christina Aguilera and Miley Cyrus beginning in December 2010 and then posting his ill-gotten findings online. Among the most high profile victims was Johansson, of whom Chaney swiped an X-rated photo which he subsequently tried to shop to TheDirty.com.
He was charged with 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer and wiretapping, but those charges were reduced to 9 as part of the plea deal.
Per the conditions of his probation once he's out of the slammer, all of Chaney's computer activity with be monitored by a probation officer and his hard drive will be subject to search and seizure by making a mirror image of the device. He also be required to pay restitution to his victims and pay a fine of up to $2.5 million, which as court documents put it, is "twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense." (Though it's likely to be far less than that amount.)
Chaney, who is out on $10,000 bond, has since publicly apologized for his actions. Sentencing is set for July 23.
—Reporting by Baker Machado