Clark man convicted in data leak
Published 9:32 am Wednesday, June 5, 2019
A Winchester man accused of leaking confidential information about 14,200 HIV-positive people from Singaporean health officials was convicted by a federal jury in Lexington Tuesday.
The trial against Mikhy Farrera-Brochez, began Monday in U.S. District Court, according to published reports.
The jury found Farrera-Brochez guilty of two counts of sending threatening communications to the Government of Singapore and its Ministry of Health and one count of possessing and transferring the means of identity of other people in interstate and foreign commerce with the intent to commit, or in connection with, another crime.
Farrera-Brochez was accused of sending emails to Singapore officials earlier this year and for unlawfully possessing personal information from Singapore’s national database of HIV-positive people.
He then allegedly threatened to release the information to the media.
Farrera-Brochez is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27 at the federal courthouse in Lexington. He faces a possible sentence of up to two years on each count of sending threatening communications and up to five years for possessing and transferring the information.
Farrera-Brochez was arrested in Clark County in December for criminal trespassing after he allegedly refused to leave his mother’s property. Shortly after his arrest, Farrera-Brochez was identified by Singaporean officials as the prime suspect in the data leak.
According to court documents, Farrera-Brochez lived in Singapore from 2008 to 2016. He was deported in 2018 after completing a prison sentence for drug offenses and fraud.
He allegedly obtained the database information from his partner, Dr. Ler Tek Siang, who was head of Singapore’s Ministry of Health’s National Public Health unit for about 18 months in 2012 and 2013.
Siang had access to the database and Singaporean officials said Siang mishandled the information.