Despite strong case against alleged hacker, politics to play key role

Santo Domingo.- The National District Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police and the National Investigation Department (DNI) today unsealed the indictment against Jose Angel Gomez Canaan (Jochy), charged with identity theft and hacking 44 email accounts of various personalities, including officials, diplomats, politicians, business leaders and journalists, for subsequent blackmail.

The fact that Gomez Canaan has been arrested three times and the sheer number of agencies involved points to a strong case, while his father’s link to the opposition PRD party also portends a drawn out process.

In a press conference, the DA Yeny Berenice Reynoso, Police chief Jose Polanco and other officials said Gomez Canaan, son of the journalist and businessman Guillermo Gomez paid the "international hackers” through remittance companies after they showed him how to access the accounts which the detainee had requested.

They said the defendant, together with a group of hackers with international links, especially India and Vietnam, obtained passwords of email accounts to conduct their fraudulent operations.

The indictment alleges that in the case of officials, politicians and diplomats, the defendant hacked their private email accounts to access classified information including bank accounts, commercial and even strictly personal information.