Joseph James O’Connor is recognized as one of the hackers who hacked the Twitter accounts of several celebrities in 2020 including American star Kim Kardashian, U.S. President Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Crypto exchange Binance and other cryptocurrency trading platforms were also subject to account hacking.
Taking advantage of the attacked pages, the hackers announced a bitcoin giveaway, promising gullible users to send double the amount of BTC in return.
O’Connor was also involved in a SIM card scam in which he and other attackers managed to steal $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
In addition, the British man blackmailed a certain public figure with images from Snapchat, as well as intimidated children with a false police summons and criminal charges.
The U.S. Department of Justice said O’Connor was apprehended in Spain two years ago and on April 26 – extradited to the U.S.
The offender pleaded guilty to burglary, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
O’Connor is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23. The British man faces more than 70 years in prison.
“O’Connor’s crimes were egregious and malicious, his actions affecting the lives of many people.
He stalked, threatened and extorted money from his victims, causing them enormous moral damage,” the U.S. Justice Department said.
In April, the U.S. Justice Department seized $112 million in crypto assets from fraud and money laundering attackers.
The ministry urged the public to be cautious and not to trust “investment advisers” from the Internet.