Knowles pleaded guilty in May to copyright infringement and identity theft charges, months after his December 2015 arrest after he flew from the Bahamas to New York City to sell 15 scripts and personal information on several celebrities for $80,000 to a law enforcement agent posing as an interested buyer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristy Greenberg requested a stiff sentence, saying prosecutors learned when they studied Knowles' prison communications that he still planned to exploit what he learned from "trolling the online accounts of hundreds of celebrities."
The prosecutor urged a sentence that would change his attitude after recorded communications in prison revealed he had identified at least one celebrity whose account he had hacked to fellow inmates and had tried to impress women with his boasts, including that he had embarrassing information on some celebrities.
