Former State Department Employee Sentenced for Illegally Accessing Confidential Passport...

Former State Department Employee Sentenced for Illegally Accessing
Confidential Passport Files

WASHINGTON, March 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A former State Department
employee was sentenced today to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform
100 hours of community service for illegally accessing more than 150
confidential passport application files, Acting Assistant Attorney General
Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division announced. Dwayne F. Cross, 41, of
Upper Marlboro, Md., was sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola
in Washington, D.C. On Jan. 14, 2009, Cross pleaded guilty to a one-count
criminal information charging him with unauthorized computer access.

According to court documents, from August 2001 through February 2008, Cross
served as an administrative assistant in the Bureau of Consular Affairs,
Overseas Citizens Services, Children's Issues for the State Department. From
March 2008 through October 2008, Cross returned to the State Department as a
contract employee working as a contract specialist for the acquisitions
office. According to information contained in plea documents, Cross admitted
he had access to official State Department computer databases in the regular
course of his employment, including the Passport Information Electronic
Records System (PIERS), which contains, among other data, all imaged passport
applications dating back to 1994. The imaged passport applications on PIERS
contain, among other things, a photograph of the passport applicant as well as
certain personal information including the applicant's full name, date and
place of birth, current address, telephone numbers, parent information,
spouse's name and emergency contact information. These confidential files are
protected by the Privacy Act of 1974, and access by State Department employees
is strictly limited to official government duties.

In pleading guilty, Cross admitted that between January 2002 and August 2007,
he logged onto the PIERS database and viewed the passport applications of more
than 150 celebrities, actors, musicians, comedians, models, politicians,
athletes, members of the media, family members, friends, associates and other
individuals. Cross admitted that he had no official government reason to
access and view these passport applications, but that his sole purpose in
accessing and viewing these passport applications was idle curiosity.

Cross is one of three former State Department employees to plead guilty in
this continuing investigation. On Sept. 22, 2008, Lawrence C. Yontz, a former
foreign service officer and intelligence analyst pleaded guilty to unlawfully
accessing hundreds of confidential passport files. Yontz was sentenced on
Dec. 19, 2008, to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of
community service. On Jan. 27, 2009, Gerald R. Leuders, a former foreign
service officer, Office of Consular Affairs watch officer and recruitment
coordinator pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing more than 50 confidential
passport files. Leuders' sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

These cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Armando O. Bonilla of the
Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William
M. Welch II. These cases are being investigated by the State Department
Office of Inspector General.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, (TDD),
+1-202-514-1888