LEWISTON – A Lewiston man has been arrested on a charge that he hacked into as many as 1,000 school accounts while he was a student at the University of Maine.

The Lewiston Police Department as well as state and federal agencies investigated the case that led to the arrest of James Wieland, 26, who lists a business address at 31 Burbank St.

Wieland, a self-described entrepreneur, musician and martial artist, was charged with aggravated criminal invasion of computer privacy, a felony in Maine.

Reached through his online business on Thursday, Wieland said he was not at liberty to discuss the charge against him or other aspects of his career.

Police say that in the summer of 2007, while Wieland was a UMaine student, he sent out e-mails containing an attached spyware program to an estimated 1,000 school accounts.

Investigators believe at least 200 UMaine students opened the mail. When they did, a program that records every keystroke on their computers was launched.

With the key-logger program installed on other machines, Wieland was able to review everything done on those computers, including private information such as passwords, according to police.

Wieland was a business student at UMaine until the spring, when he left the school. Police believe he may have continued hacking student accounts until this week when he was arrested.

Last month, a UMaine student became suspicious when he received an e-mail from his girlfriend when she was sitting beside him on an airplane. The student contacted the school about the incident. University police began to investigate and they called for help from the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force.

One of the leading investigators from that group, detective Scot Bradeen of the Lewiston Police Department, began investigating the suspected hacking. Police said evidence pointed to Wieland as the source and his method was investigated.

Bradeen helped crack the case but the task force is still examining Wieland’s computers to see what he did with the information he allegedly stole from UMaine students.

The U.S. Secret Service joined the probe because it involved the compromising of personal information through the Internet.

In Lewiston, Wieland worked as development director of Trinity Catholic School but resigned after his arrest, according to a diocese spokeswoman.

The bio submitted when Wieland was hired at Trinity in the fall states: “Wieland was born in Corning, Calif., and moved to Conway, N.H., at the age of 12 where he completed his secondary education. At Kennett High School, he won awards for public speaking, law studies and influence, music and martial arts. He then moved to Orono to receive a bachelor of science degree in business management, a bachelor of science degree in business marketing, with a minor in music from the University of Maine.”

University officials said Wieland did not graduate from the school.

In 2002, Wieland created a company called Optec Industries, which claims to be “a way of marketing the Web site and photography ventures of James Wieland.”

On the Web site, Wieland lists under his personal business experience: mortgage brokerage, small business startup, grant writing, development and fundraising and systems management.

Under “outside skills,” he lists martial arts, Web site design, photography, security and strategic planning.

UMaine sent e-mail messages late Wednesday to those believed to be victims of the hackings. A separate message informed all members of the UMaine community of the situation and provided reminders of computer privacy protection measures.

“This is a reprehensible offense, made worse by the way it was delivered,” Chief Noel March, UMaine’s director of Public Safety, said in a statement posted on the UMaine Web site. “By targeting victims one at a time and shielding his identity, the perpetrator committed crimes invisible to detection through network security mechanisms.

“This is a wired community, and we depend on computer networks to conduct every aspect of our mission,” March said. “Crimes of this nature are most serious and they will not be tolerated at UMaine.”

Wieland could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the felony charge.