Former Fort Hood soldier sentenced to nearly six years for hacking, extortion plot

A former soldier was sentenced to 70 months in prison last week for a spree of various cybercrimes spanning years, while he was an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Hood.

Cameron James Wagenius, 22, was sentenced to prison on Friday, more than a year after pleading guilty to hacking telecommunication companies and extortion schemes tied to stolen data. 

According to the Justice Department, between April 2023 and December 2024, Wagenius was part of a group that conspired to hack and defraud at least 10 organizations. Using the online alias “kiberphant0m” as well as a hacking tool he helped to develop, and gained access to data from phone call logs. In November 2024 he sent two posts online that “disclosed stolen confidential non-content call detail records belonging to a government official and family members of another former official and threatened to release additional confidential records unless paid a ransom,” according to officials.

The scheme targeted American and foreign telecommunications companies, with the plotters moving stolen information across the Telegram messaging app. The plotters, Wagenius among them, attempted to extort people for more than $1 million. They were able to sell some of the stolen data, according to officials.

In the time between his arrest and plea he was kicked out of the Army. He had been serving as a private first class. Wagenius joined the Army in 2022 as a signal support systems specialist, Stars & Stripes previously reported.

“Cameron Wagenius spent more than a year and a half betraying the trust placed in him as an active duty soldier by carrying out a sweeping cybercrime campaign,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement.

Wagenius was arrested on Dec. 20, 2024, while stationed at Fort Hood, then-Fort Cavazos, in Texas. In July 2025, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, extortion in relation to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. 

In the Justice Department’s release, Brett Leatherman, the assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said that the FBI and Army identified and arrested Wagenius “within weeks” of his extortion threats. The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and FBI investigated the case, with assistance from the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division and other agencies.

Along with his prison time, Wagenius was ordered to pay $294,978 in restitution.