Biden, Obama and Musk hacker has Bitcoin seized.
AFP via Getty Images
Hacking is not a crime. Criminal hacking is, and that’s what we read about the most. Whether it’s hackers giving Windows users the finger, targeting hotel guests or, most aptly on this occasion, compromising social media accounts. Perhaps the most infamous of social media hackers, responsible for the compromise of Twitter accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, to name but a few very high-profile users, is currently serving out a five-year sentence for these crimes. But as well as losing his liberty, Joseph James O’Connor has now just lost his Bitcoin stash.
Hacking Elon Musk On The Platform He Bought Has Cost The Hacker Dearly
Travel back to July 2020, and it’s likely the cybercrime story you were reading about involved the compromise of more than 130 Twitter accounts. The reason it was such a big deal is that the accounts included those in the names of people such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Mush. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and more high-profile folks and companies. James Joseph O-Conner was ultimately sentenced to five years in the U.S. after agreeing to a plea deal for his part in the hacking crimes. The hack was part of a Bitcoin scam, using celebrity accounts to get people to send crypto on a promise of the supposed famous person or organization doubling the amount in a charitable, if unlikely, move. It is estimated that at the compromised tweets were viewed at least 350 million times.
Fast-forward to now. The U.K. Crown Prosecution Service, O’Connor is a British national, has confirmed 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,” which equates to around $5.4 million. The Bitcoin value alone exceeds $4 million.
Every time you read about a ransomware group making hundreds of millions of dollars, remember that crime does not always pay, and there’s a financial and a freedom cost that comes with getting caught. “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.”