Man pleads guilty to hacking social media accounts, stealing cryptocurrency

(KRON) — A UK citizen was extradited from Spain to the US, where he pleaded guilty Wednesday to various cybercrimes in New York and California for his role in hacking Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat accounts, bullying cyber attack and the theft of USD 794,000 in cryptocurrency.

In 2020, 23-year-old James O'Connor, aka "PlugWalkJoe," and several other conspirators allegedly hacked into various Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts, and in some cases used them to scam other users or sold access. to accounts, including those of public figures around the world.

O'Connor allegedly hacked into a TikTok account with more than 1 million followers and used it to post self-promotional messages, including a video recognizing his voice, authorities said. He also allegedly threatened to release personal information about the user to people who joined a certain Discord server. In 2019, O'Connor also allegedly hacked into a SnapChat account and threatened to post private messages and images.

O'Connor also allegedly “squashed”—or falsely reported a crime to create a police response in the direction of a person—a victim. O'Connor allegedly falsely reported that the victim was threatening to shoot and kill multiple people at the address, prompting all police officers on duty in the area to respond.

Between March and May 2019, O'Connor allegedly stole $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a New York-based company that provided cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure and facilitated cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. O'Connor and the conspirators allegedly hacked into the phone numbers of three company executives and used that control to access affiliated online accounts. O'Connor then allegedly laundered the cryptocurrency through dozens of transactions, exchanging some of it for Bitcoin and depositing it into his own cryptocurrency account.

For hacking into social media accounts, O'Connor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and two counts of committing computer intrusion, making extortionate communications, and two counts of stalking and making threatening communications, for which he faces up to 27 years in prison. prison. For stealing the cryptocurrency, O'Connor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, for which he faces up to 45 years in prison. O'Connor also agreed to forfeit $794,012.64 and make restitution to the victims of his crimes.

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He is scheduled to be sentenced June 23 by the District Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.