A British man jailed in the United States for hacking the Twitter accounts of high-profile figures including Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos has been ordered to hand over £4.1 million in cryptocurrency linked to his crimes.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was sentenced in the US last year after admitting to his role in a sophisticated cyberattack that saw him gain access to dozens of celebrity and corporate Twitter accounts. He used the compromised profiles to promote fraudulent Bitcoin schemes, scamming victims worldwide. O’Connor also threatened several celebrities with the release of private messages and images unless they paid him in cryptocurrency.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now secured a Civil Recovery Order to seize 42 Bitcoin — along with other digital assets — that O’Connor obtained through the scheme. The recovered cryptocurrency is worth approximately £4.1 million at today’s market value.
The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division worked closely with agencies in the United States and Spain, where O’Connor was arrested, to ensure he could not conceal or transfer the assets before the order was enforced.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said the action demonstrates the reach of UK authorities even when offenders are convicted overseas.
“Joseph James O’Connor targeted well-known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money,” he said. “We were able to use the full force of our powers to ensure that even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we can still prevent them from benefiting from their criminality.”
O’Connor was a central figure in the July 2020 Twitter breach, one of the platform’s most significant security failures. The attack compromised accounts belonging to political leaders, billionaires, celebrities and major brands, prompting international investigations and widespread concern over the security of social media platforms.
