Prosecutors charge Florida man with trying to hack New York charity

A Florida man was charged on Monday in federal court in Manhattan with trying to hack into the computer network of a "global charitable organization based in New York" that prosecutors declined to name.

Timothy Sedlak, 42, of Ocoee, Florida, allegedly told investigators before his arrest that he had been investigating whether donations from the organization and other charities worked their way into jihadist causes, and hoped to sell the results of his research.

Prosecutors said 30 computers were seized from the home of Sedlak, and he was tied to two Internet addresses that had tried to make unauthorized entries into the charity's computer network nearly 400,000 times in June and July.

Sedlak is identified on LinkedIn as working as an investigator for Surveillance Associates LLC, but prosecutors said he was not licensed as a private investigator in Florida.

He faces up to 5 years in prison if convicted of attempting unauthorized access to a computer, and was scheduled to appear in court in Florida on Monday.