A British hacker who targeted VIP Twitter accounts including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Kim Kardashian has been ordered to hand over £4 million.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed for five years in the US over a plot to scam people out of Bitcoin and threaten celebrities with the release of personal images and messages.
He was locked up in 2023, and now the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK has secured a High Court order which forces O’Connor to surrender 42 Bitcoin and a stash of cryptocurrency, valued at around £4.1m.
The Civil Recovery Order was made to stop O’Connor hiding and dispersing his assets.
O’Connor was part of a group who carried out the hack in 2020, with victims including Kanye West, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Netanyahu and Jeff Bezos.
At the time, Twitter said a total of 130 accounts had been targeted.
Tweets were then sent out by the hackers, appearing to come from famous names, encouraging followers to “send $1000” in Bitcoin to receive double in return.
One of the messages from President Obama’s account suggested he was “giving back to my community due to Covid-19”.
O’Connor, who was 24 when brought to justice, pleaded guilty in a New York court after being extradited from Spain.
He admitted two charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, conspiracies to commit wire fraud and money laundering, two counts of committing computer intrusions, making extortive communications, two charges of stalking, and making threatening communications.
As part of the case, he admitted stealing $794,000 in virtual currency from a New York cryptocurrency company, which the US court ordered him to repay.
Speaking after the Civil recovery Order was granted, Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “Joseph James O’Connor targeted well known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money.
“We were able to use the full force of the powers available to us to ensure that even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality.”
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