The full federal indictment against former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa has been made public, and it contains several bombshells.
The indictment claims that Correa accessed the Houston Astros player information database, known as “Ground Control,” during the 2013 MLB Draft, as well as the day of the 2013 trade deadline. It is also alleged that, after an in-depth Houston Chronicle article in March 2014 discussing Ground Control, the Astros changed the URL and passwords and tightened security, and Correa gained unauthorized access to a Houston executive’s email to obtain the changed data and use the new information.
Here’s what the feds says Chris Correa accessed on the Astros database pic.twitter.com/5MAxI7IVom
— Lindsey Adler (@Lahlahlindsey) January 8, 2016
Damn, man. pic.twitter.com/u1NrWFjTgR
— Lindsey Adler (@Lahlahlindsey) January 8, 2016
Re: Correa pic.twitter.com/cR4gRwbxxW
— Lindsey Adler (@Lahlahlindsey) January 8, 2016
Among the information illegally viewed by Correa: scouting reports, notes, and rankings of prospects the Astros were considering drafting, including their draft boards; information the Astros had on Cardinals’ prospects; Astros internal trade discussions; and international prospects the Astros were considering signing. All of them were allegedly accessed on multiple occasions. The feds also say the database was accessed during March of 2013 and March of 2014, which is a timeframe that would align with previously reported information that at least some of the hacks took place at a team spring training home in Jupiter, Florida.
The indictment document can be viewed in full here, via Lindsey Adler of Buzzfeed.
Correa pled guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to computer information. He admitted in court that the motive was a suspicion that the Astros had unauthorized Cardinals data, and said he did find Cardinals data in their system. He was fired in July after the hacking allegations went public.
It had previously been claimed that this was a low-level group of employees responsible for the operation, but the indictment would seem to dispute that assertion. As scouting director, Correa was definitely occupying a high level position within the organization. One wonders how much Correa’s bosses knew about this, if anything at all, and it’s hard to believe that the league would let the Cardinals go unpunished for such blatant trespassing.
