James Joseph O-Conner, the most notorious social media hacker, who compromised the Twitter accounts of prominent users including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, is presently serving a five-year term for these offences.
Adding to that, Joseph James O’Connor has now lost his Bitcoin stockpile in addition to losing his freedom.
42 Bitcoins seized
In July 2020, a cybercrime case involved over 130 Twitter accounts being compromised. The accounts included those in the names of prominent individuals and businesses, like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, which is why it was such a huge issue.
After accepting a plea agreement for his involvement in the hacking offences, James Joseph O-Conner was eventually sentenced to five years in the United States, Forbes reported.
The hack was a component of a Bitcoin scam that used celebrity accounts to trick people into sending cryptocurrency with the promise that the purportedly well-known individual or group would double the money in an unusual but benevolent gesture. The hijacked tweets are thought to have received at least 350 million views.
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What happens now?
Now fast-forward to the present. The U.K. Crown Prosecution Service has announced that it has “obtained a Civil Recovery Order to recover 42 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency that O’Connor made from the scheme, which holds the value of around £4.1m,”. The value of Bitcoin alone is more than $4 million.
“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,“ Adrian Foster, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said, “we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality.”
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at about £4.1 million, was issued last week after prosecutors obtained a hold on the hacker’s assets during the extradition process. The social media site momentarily froze certain accounts as a result of the theft.
Social media account hacks
In 2021, he was detained in Spain and extradited after the nation’s High Court determined that the United States was the most suitable country to prosecute him due to the availability of the evidence and victims.
Social media hacks have become quite famous when it comes to influencing the market by hacking into accounts. This prosecution serves as an example for cases in the future.
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