A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con individuals out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in america for 5 years in 2023 after he pleaded responsible to fees together with laptop intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the nation’s excessive court docket dominated the US was finest positioned to prosecute as a result of the proof and victims had been there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated on Monday it had obtained a civil restoration order to grab 42 Bitcoin and different crypto belongings linked to the rip-off, by which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital forex and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures together with former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole greater than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after utilizing the hacked accounts to ask individuals to ship $1,000 in Bitcoin to obtain double again.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster stated the civil restoration order confirmed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s belongings at round £4.1m, was made final week, following a freeze positioned on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured throughout extradition proceedings.
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Barack Obama was one of many well-known individuals to have their Twitter account hacked
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Elon Musk was amongst these focused by scammers in a Twitter hack
A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his belongings, the CPS stated.
The assault additionally compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of different high-profile figures together with Tesla chief govt Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media persona and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to briefly freeze some accounts.
X stated 130 accounts had been focused, with 45 used to ship tweets.
