UK Citizen Sentenced to Multiple Years in Prison for Stealing $794,000 in Crypto During 2020 Twitter Hack
A UK citizen was recently sentenced to five years in prison in the US for committing a slew of cybercrimes, including stealing $794,000 worth of digital assets at the time from a Manhattan-based crypto firm.
Joseph James O’Connor, also known as “PlugwalkJoe,” was extradited from Spain in late April and pled guilty in May to multiple sets of charges.
In addition to the prison sentence, a federal judge also sentenced O’Connor to three years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $794,012.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators executed a SIM swap attack by targeting the executives of the unnamed Manhattan-based crypto firm. The hackers subsequently laundered the stolen proceeds, part of which were eventually deposited into a crypto exchange account controlled by O’Connor.
The UK citizen is also implicated in the high-profile Twitter hack that took over the accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk and other known personalities to promote a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway scam. The perpetrators profited 11.3 BTC, currently worth around $344,152, from the scheme.
Additionally, O’Connor also stalked and threatened a victim under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In what’s known as a “swatting attack,” the bad actor reportedly called a local police department and falsely claimed that the person he was stalking had been making threats to shoot people, and he provided what he believed to be their address. O’Connor also called up and threatened to kill multiple members of the victim’s family.
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Author: Conor Devitt
