A British hacker who caused a stir in 2020 and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crypto has pleaded guilty to two sets of charges following his extradition from Spain on April 26.
In a statement released Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York says that in 2020, Joseph James O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, hacked into the Twitter accounts of celebrities and politicians and stole nearly $800,000 worth of crypto from a digital asset exchange.
O’Connor faces up to 77 years in prison for his alleged involvement in several cybercrimes, including conspiracy to commit computer break-ins, computer break-ins and cyberstalking.
The hacker is being charged for his alleged role in a SIM swap attack that stole $794,000 worth of crypto assets from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company. The 23-year-old and his conspirators then laundered the proceeds, part of which was eventually deposited into a crypto exchange account controlled by the suspect.
“As part of the plan, O’Connor and his co-conspirators successfully staged SIM-swap attacks targeting at least three Company-1 executives. Following a successful SIM swap attack targeting one of the executives on or about April 30, 2019, O’Connor and his co-conspirators successfully gained unauthorized access to multiple Company-1 accounts and computer systems.
O’Connor is also involved in the high-profile Twitter hack that took over the accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk and other well-known personalities to promote a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway scam. The perpetrators reportedly benefited 11.3 BTC, currently worth about $312,942, from the scheme.
Northern District of California U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey says O’Connor has left “an impressive trail of destruction” from his criminal offenses.
“This case serves as a warning that the scope of the law is long and criminals everywhere who use computers to commit crimes may face the consequences of their actions in places they did not foresee.”
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Featured image: Midway through the journey