Joseph James O'Connor Ordered to Pay Back £4.1m in Bitcoin After Hacking Celebrity Twitter Accounts
Joseph James O'Connor, 26, was ordered by the CPS to pay back £4.1 million in Bitcoin following a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets linked to a high-profile scam. The order came after a freeze was placed on O'Connor's property during extradition proceedings.
O'Connor was jailed in the United States in 2023 for five years after pleading guilty to computer intrusion, wire fraud, and extortion. He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after Spain's high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were located there.
The cyberattack, which occurred in July 2020, compromised the Twitter/X accounts of several celebrities and prominent figures, including Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Kim Kardashian. Approximately 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send fraudulent tweets.
The scammers used the hacked accounts to post messages asking users to send $1,000 in Bitcoin with a promise to double the amount in return, resulting in stolen cryptocurrency exceeding $794,000.
A court-appointed trustee has been assigned to liquidate O'Connor's seized assets. Prosecutor Adrian Foster stated that the civil recovery order demonstrates the UK's ability to deny criminals the proceeds of their wrongdoing, even if there is no UK conviction.
