GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man has been sentenced for stealing and selling thousands of Meijer mPerks usernames and passwords online.
On Thursday, 22-year-old Nicholas Mui from Grand Haven was sentenced to five to 20 years in state prison by a 17th Circuit Court judge.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office announced charges in January when Mui was found to have been using a program to receive thousands of active mPerks usernames and passwords to sell on the dark web.
Mui pleaded guilty to one count of criminal enterprise in July.
While Mui showed little reaction, several people in the courtroom, including friends and family of Mui, were visibly shocked when the sentence was read.
Both the prosecution and Mui's defense attorney agreed on sentencing guidelines for a minimum of 12-20 months.
The judge called Mui's actions "outrageous."
"This affects thousands of people. You basically stole this information and sold it to people that were going to use it for illegal reasons and you knew you were doing it," said Judge Mark Trusock. "You put these individuals at risk for potentially down the road losing hundreds or thousands of dollars and there is no excuse or justification for this."
Prosecutor Eric Sterbis said that if Michigan State Police had not intervened, the crime would have continued.
However, he said Mui has been cooperating with law enforcement.
Sterbis even said Mui has been directly providing his insights to law enforcement to help them better understand and prevent these crimes.
Defense Attorney Andy LaPres argued for Mui to serve 12-20 months in the Kent County Jail. LaPres said Mui understands he made "horrible" choices and is remorseful.
The court has received letters of support for Nick from those in his life.
"He's hoping the court will see the positives that he has in his life, and all the good things that he has done for other people, like the people that wrote those letters for him," said LaPres. "He was a good kid before he committed these offenses and he's going to be a good kid after and he knows he's going to have to pay some penalty for the things that he did in the middle of that. He understands that."
In addition to spending five to 20 years in state prison, Mui will also have to pay more than $1 million in restitution to Meijer for damages and reimbursements to impacted customers.
Mui's defense attorney declined to give further comment after the sentencing.