Joseph James O'Connor, the British hacker behind a 2020 Twitter hack that targeted high-profile accounts, has been ordered to repay £4.1 million ($5.40 million) in Bitcoin. The 26-year-old pleaded guilty in the United States to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion, and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2023.
O'Connor was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country's High Court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “Joseph James O’Connor targeted well-known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money. 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, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality.”
The order, made last week, follows a property freezing order secured during extradition proceedings. The assets will be liquidated by a court-appointed trustee, prosecutors said.
The July 2020 attack compromised the accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Kim Kardashian, among others. Twitter, now called X, temporarily restricted verified accounts in response. The hackers used social engineering tricks to gain access and sent tweets asking followers to send bitcoin with a promise to double their money.
The US Department of Justice previously said O'Connor had participated in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion and cyberstalking.
