Did Deleting Your Internet Browser History Just Become a Federal Offense With 20 Years Jail Time?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into law by President Bush in 2002, largely in response to the 2001 Enron scandal. Though it deals mostly with corporate financial reporting, it is now being used for an entirely different purpose.

Khairullozhon Matanov, a former taxi driver and acquaintance of the Boston Marathon bombers, is due in court next week. But it's not because he knew about the bombings beforehand, or because he participated in the attacks.

Instead, his crime was deleting his browser history in the days following the bombings.

He's been charged with obstruction of justice for the deed, and could spend the next 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors are clutching to one section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which details severe penalties for "destroying, mutilating, concealing, falsifying records, documents, or tangible objects" with intent to impede or stall a federal investigation.

A Grand Jury indictment from May 29, 2014 states that Matanov “deleted a large amount of information from his Google Chrome Internet cache"

Full article HERE

I would have thought people would be protected by the fifth amendment and the right to not incriminate oneself... oh wait - I was thinking of back when the government paid attention to the Constitution.