A British man hacked the system of Zynga and stole 400 billion virtual poker chips. As BBC reports the crime was made by 29-year-old IT businessmen Ashley Mitchel living in London.

The amount of loot Ashley Mitchel managed to pocket is equal to 12 million American dollars. Later he applied to the black market of the system and put chips up for sale. That happened to be a place where he was exposed.  By that point he has sold chips on 86 thousand dollars. In case of success he would get 300 thousand dollars more.

The lawyer of Ashley Mitchel says about his client gambling addiction and that he tries hard to beat it. Now he is expecting four charges of criminal property conversion and for violation of the Computer Misuse Act.
Some time before he has hacked the government system already and even faced suspended sentence, which was certainly breached by his crime.

Gareth Evans, the prosecutor, drew attention to the fact that when the currency of  Zynga is not converted it does not have any effect upon the income of the company taking into account that Zynga is able to create the same virtual money without efforts. They exist only in the web, but there is fear that the company can lose some customers who might be afraid of dealing with hackers.