British citizen Joseph James O’Connor, who was extradited from Spain to the US, pleaded guilty to hacking, the BBC reported.
O’Connor, 23, known as “PlugwalkJoe”, will face charges of hacking, which carries a prison sentence of up to 70 years.
O’Connor also admitted to other hacking crimes, including gaining access to multi-follower accounts.
It was stated that O’Connor, who posted content using his own voice on an account he had access to, threatened the owner of the account to publish “sensitive and personal content” and pursued a minor online.
O’Connor will be tried on the same charges as Graham Ivan Clark and Nima Fazeli, who live in the US state of Florida, and Mason Sheppard, a British citizen.
Kenneth Polite Jr., Deputy Attorney General of the United States, described O’Connor’s actions as “blatant and malicious”.
Noting that O’Connor “harassed and threatened his victims, blackmailing and causing emotional damage,” Polite Jr said, “Like many criminals, O’Connor tried to remain anonymous and conceal his identity by using secret accounts and pseudonyms from outside the United States. The case demonstrates that criminals are identified and brought to justice to enable them to face the consequences of their actions.” said.
They made an unfair profit on their Bitcoin account
Clark, Fazeli and Sheppard were arrested in 2020, accused of hacking and selling personal information.
In 2020, caught hackers were found alongside former US President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates and Tesla’s founder Elon Musk, Kanye West, his wife Kim. It was determined that celebrities such as Kardashian took over their Twitter accounts and made fake posts.
In addition, it was announced that the hackers, who were stated to be involved in the most high-profile internet security incident of recent years, also made more than $ 100 thousand in unfair profits on Twitter, promising to pay $ 2,000 for every $ 1000 sender to an unknown Bitcoin address.