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ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A federal jury on Thursday convicted an Alexandria man of conspiring with his twin brother to delete approximately 96 federal government databases after the pair were fired from a contractor that served more than 45 federal agencies.
Sohaib Akhter, 34, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, password trafficking and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 and faces a maximum penalty of 21 years in prison.
How the case unfolded
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Sohaib Akhter and his twin brother and co-defendant, Muneeb Akhter, worked for a Washington, D.C., software company that hosted data for federal clients on servers in Ashburn. On Feb. 1, 2025, Muneeb Akhter asked his brother for the plaintext password of someone who had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Public Portal, which their employer maintained. Sohaib Akhter ran a database query and handed over the password, which was then used to access the complainant's email account without authorization.
The company discovered Sohaib Akhter's prior felony conviction and fired both brothers during a remote meeting on Feb. 18, 2025. Immediately afterward, prosecutors said, the brothers sought to harm the employer by accessing computers without authorization, write-protecting and deleting databases, and destroying evidence of their activity. Over several hours, roughly 96 databases storing U.S. government information were wiped, including case management and Freedom of Information Act response processing software.
The firearms charge
A search of Sohaib Akhter's cellphone showed he had obtained firearms as early as January 2025. After investigators executed a search warrant on March 12, 2025, he took steps to sell them. On March 18, he drove with his domestic partner to a firearm company in Farnham, Virginia, where she completed paperwork to sell the company seven firearms. As a convicted felon, he was barred from possessing them.
The Akhter brothers had pleaded guilty in 2015 in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy charges involving wire fraud and unauthorized computer access. Muneeb Akhter was sentenced to three years and three months in prison; Sohaib Akhter received two years.
Who investigated
The case was investigated by the FDIC Office of Inspector General, the Department of Homeland Security OIG and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from more than 15 federal inspectors general, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Fairfax County Police Department and the Alexandria Sheriff's Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Strobbe and trial attorneys George Brown and Stefanie Schwartz of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are prosecuting the case.
A federal district court judge will determine the final sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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