British Hacker Joseph James O’Connor Ordered to Forfeit £4.1 Million in Crypto Assets Linked to 2020 Twitter Breach
Joseph James O’Connor, a 26-year-old British hacker, has been subjected to a civil recovery order secured by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for cryptocurrency assets valued at approximately £4.1 million. The assets include 42.378 BTC, 235.329 ETH, 143,273.57 BUSD, and 15.23 USDC, and are to be liquidated by a court-appointed trustee.
O’Connor orchestrated the July 2020 Twitter breach, which compromised over 130 accounts belonging to high-profile individuals such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and others by exploiting internal Twitter tools. Prosecutors reported that the group involved collected more than $794,000 from the scam.
The breach led to a significant security failure at Twitter (now X), resulting in the temporary lockdown of verified accounts. Two British associates of O’Connor opened crypto accounts utilized by him during the scam but were found not to be involved in the fraud.
O’Connor pleaded guilty in the United States to multiple offenses including computer intrusion conspiracies and money laundering. Following extradition from Spain, he was sentenced to five years in prison and deported earlier this year.
The value of the stolen cryptocurrency holdings has increased in line with Bitcoin's price surge, with BTC nearing $92,800, contributing to the current valuation of over £4.1 million.
In the broader context of crypto-related crimes, the first eight months of 2025 saw over $3 billion stolen across 119 incidents globally. The US Department of Justice seized more than $15 million in USDT linked to North Korea's APT38 hacking group. Notably, October 2025 was the safest month for hacks, with approximately $18.18 million lost. Europol also dismantled a significant SIM-farm network aimed at facilitating malicious activities in the crypto space.
