Albert Gonzalez of Miami was sentenced 20 years by Judge Patti Saris of Federal District Court for helping engineer to steal debit and credit card numbers in American history.

Gonzalez appealed guilty last year to breaking into the systems of computers of major retailers such as Wholesale Club and TJX Companies. The prosecutors hunted 25 years for Mr. Gonzalez, saying he exploited millions of people and charge insurers, banks and companies nearly $200 million. The lawyer argued Mr. Gonzalez must get no more than 15 years.

Furthermore, Mr. Gonzalez appealed guilty last 2009 in three part cases in hacking brought in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The Thursday hearing traded with the case in Massachusetts. A second sentencing Friday, also in Boston, will agree with the others.

In addition, Martin Weinberg, lawyer of Mr. Gonzalez in Boston, said that Mr. Gonzalez, a self-taught computer expert, showed behavior steady with Asperger’s syndrome, a kind of autism. A report of the psychiatrist of defense described Mr. Gonzalez as a socially ill at ease Internet addict with an unbelievable skills in the computer.

Moreover, according to the authorities, Mr. Gonzalez and the two foreign co-suspects, with a laptop computer, will drive past retailers and tap into those with unprotected wireless Internet signals. Furthermore, the authorities said that they will then install sniffer programs that take off debit and credit card numbers as they moved through the computers of the retailers before trying to sell the numbers overseas.

Mr. Gonzalez, known online as soupnazi, became a Secret Service communicator after he was initially arrested in 2003 for hacking details of credit and debit cards number. However, even as he helped the government to grab other hackers, prosecutors said, he stayed breaking into the computer systems of the retailers, accumulating $2.8 million he used to buy a car, Tiffany ring, Rolex watches and Miami condominium.