The court filing shows that his pattern of unauthorized access fit neatly with the draft-driven calendar followed by baseball officials – including Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager and Correa’s former boss in St. Louis, who oversaw the Cardinals’ drafts until leaving for Houston in December 2011. As part of his plea, he’s agreed not to appeal his sentencing, which is scheduled for April 11.
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Correa faces penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“Unauthorized computer intrusion is not to be taken lightly”.
“Yes, your honor, I accept responsibility for my mistakes”, Correa said, adding that his actions were “stupid”.
In June, there were reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department were probing the Cardinals for possibly breaking into the Astros’ proprietary database network.
Rumors have suggested Luhnow left the Cardinals on bad terms, which may have been the reason for the alleged hacks, but Luhnow denied any rift with the organization when he departed.
In court on Friday, Correa confirmed a popular theory about his motive: He wanted to see if Luhnow had brought any of the Cardinals’ proprietary information with him to Houston. The details of the hacking emerged, and it appeared to be a rather unsophisticated attempt to look at information on the Astros database. The Astros, among others noticed Luhnow’s success with the Cardinals, and charged Luhnow with rebuilding the franchise, which returned to the playoffs last season after a lengthy asbsence. He took issue with comments made by Correa when he told the judge he had found Cardinals’ proprietary information in the Astros computer system.
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The former scouting director of the St Louis Cardinals baseball club has admitted he illegally poked around in the player database of a Major League Baseball rival. The information he accessed was given an estimated value of $1.7 million by the U.S. Attorney’s office. They say he also improperly viewed Astros’ notes of trade discussions, the Astros’ main draft page and a scouting page that listed information on Houston prospects. Correa became Cardinals Director of Scouting in 2014, and was sacked in July due to the scandal. Correa denied illegal activity when he was first investigated. In March 2013, Correa illicitly gained entry to the Astros’ private online database called “Ground Control”, which stored confidential information like analytics, contract information and employee email accounts.
