After four years defending themselves against the felony charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for what amounted to a digital sit-in on the website of PayPal in response to what they termed extra-legal censorship of WikiLeaks, 13 men and women, known as the PayPal 14 (one case was handled separately), were sentenced in San Jose, California.
Last year, 11 of the defendants plead to the felony per the terms of a plea agreement with the Department of Justice. The other two refused the plea agreement and plead to a misdemeanor.
Today, all 13 defendants had their felony counts dismissed today at sentencing. They were each sentenced to pay $5,600 restitution to PayPal: a total of roughly $80,000. For the 11 defendants who pled to a felony, their pretrial conditions were counted towards probation time. All defendants will remain on financial probation until they pay full restitution. For the two who plead to a misdemeanor, they will spend between 60 and 90 days in a half-way house in lieu of jail. All the defendants are still fundraising because those defendants who paid their restitution in full, took loans out to do so.
