According to a federal indictment filed in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on Thursday, former Tribune Company employee Matthew Keys faces a jail term of up to 25 years; with the federal charges having accused him of conspiring with the Anonymous hacktivists to hack into a Tribune website.

Going by the indictment filing, 26-year-old Keys - who, as per his Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, is deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters - has been charged with one count of conspiracy to transmit information; and one count each of transmission of information and attempts to transmit information for causing damage to a secured computer.

A press release from the Department of Justice (DoJ) has revealed that if Keys is convicted, he could face a fine of a whopping amount of US$250,000 for each count, along with a prison sentence for up to 25 years, and three years of supervised release.

The DoJ said that Keys earlier worked as a Web producer for the Tribune-owned television station KTXL Fox 40 in Sacramento. After his termination from that job in October 2010, Keys allegedly gave log-in credentials for a computer server belonging to Tribune to the members of the Anonymous hacking outfit; and persuaded them to cause disruption to the website.

The indictment stated that Key's activities were "part of the conspiracy to log in without authorization to Tribune Company's content management system for the purpose of learning how to alter and damage it."