A British man has pleaded guilty for his role in hacking the Twitter accounts of several high-profile celebrities.
Washington:
A British man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to his role in a scheme to hack the Twitter accounts of celebrities such as Barack Obama and Elon Musk and steal $794,000 in cryptocurrency.
Joseph James O’Connor, 23, entered his guilty plea in a New York court on April 26 after being extradited from Spain.
He was arrested almost two years ago in Spain in July 2020 for hacking more than 130 Twitter accounts, including those of Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Obama and Musk.
He and others in his hacking group hijacked the accounts and asked the owners’ followers to send them bitcoins, promising to double their money.
In 2019 the group also used a technique known as a SIM card swap to break into the social media accounts of two media stars, not named in court filings but named in press reports as TikTok stars Addison Rae and The actress was named as Bella Thorne.
The group threatened to make his private images and other information public.
Furthermore, he used the same technique to steal $794,000 worth of virtual currency from a New York cryptocurrency company.
O’Connor, known by the online name of PlugWalkJoe, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of computer intrusion, extortion, stalking, wire fraud and money laundering.
The most serious charges carry up to 20 years in prison.
In July 2021, Florida teen Graham Evan Clark, the alleged mastermind of the hacking group, was sentenced to three years in juvenile prison as part of a plea agreement.
Clark, only 17 when he was charged, was sentenced to the maximum sentence allowed under Florida’s Young Offenders Act.
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