Briton faces 40 years in US jail ‘over hacking Biden and stars’
A BRITISH man accused of hacking Joe Biden and Kim Kardashian’s Twitter accounts as part of a cryptocurrency scam faces extradition to the US on charges with jail sentences totalling more than 40 years.
Joseph O’connor, 22, appeared yesterday at a court in Madrid, where he pleaded against extradition before he returned to the prison cell in which he has spent the past eight months.
Mr O’connor is accused of being behind a major incident affecting 130 Twitter accounts on July 15, 2020, in which hackers seized control of the profiles and posted false messages directing people to make cryptocurrency transfers to a given account.
As well as then future US president Biden, others who had their accounts hijacked included Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
The hackers, allegedly Mr O’connor and three young associates from the US and UK, took cryptocurrency worth $788,000 (£598,000) in the scam, in which fans of the public figures were encouraged to donate in the expectation of receiving more money in return.
Mr O’connor, reportedly from Liverpool, but whose mother has a residence in the Costa del Sol, is also accused of conspiracy to commit offences against the US, extortion, stalking and threatening communications. The US justice department alleges that he hacked into his victims’ social media accounts and phones to demand payment or harass individuals.
According to reports, one of his victims was actress Bella Thorne, whose Snapchat account was seized by hackers who threatened to post nude photos of the star unless she agreed to give the intruders positive publicity.
The hackers posted on Ms Thorne’s Snapchat: “Will drop nudes if 5,000 of you follow @Plugwalkjoe.” Ms Thorne went public with the threats and decided to share photographs of herself to short-circuit the blackmail attempt. FBI investigators believe that Mr O’connor is Plugwalkjoe.
Spain’s public prosecutors yesterday supported the US request for his extradition, with a decision expected from the national court in the next few days.