In a recent development, a 24-year old individual, Joseph O’Conner, known by his Twitter handle PlugWalkJoe, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the notorious 2020 Twitter hack. In addition, O’Conner has also been implicated in a separate SIM swapping scheme. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted him 28 months’ credit for the time he has already served, leaving less than three years of his sentence to be served. The judge highlighted that “cryptocurrency crimes are too easily dismissed as only money, but lives were impacted.”
The 2020 Twitter hack saw O’Conner and his co-conspirators take over 100 high-profile Twitter accounts in July 2020. They used these accounts to solicit Bitcoin (BTC) from their followers, falsely promising to send back BTC in return. The culprits started by hijacking crypto-industry specific accounts such as Coinbase, CoinDesk, and Binance, later targeting mainstream personalities like Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Joe BIden, Barrack Obama, and Kim Kardashian, as well as companies like Apple, Uber, and CashApp.
Through this scheme, O’Conner managed to net a total of $103,960 before Twitter removed the scam posts. He was the fourth co-conspirator involved in the hack, along with Nima Fazeli, Mason John Sheppard, and Graham Clark. While the latter three were arrested shortly after the hack took place, O’Conner evaded authorities for approximately one year before being arrested in Spain at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was extradited to the United States last month.
On one hand, the apprehension and sentencing of O’Conner demonstrate the increasing efficiency of authorities in tackling cryptocurrency-related crimes. It also highlights the seriousness of such crimes and their impact on people’s lives. On the other hand, it raises concerns over the safety and security of high-profile accounts on social media platforms.
Regarding the separate SIM-swapping scheme, O’Conner pleaded guilty to extracting funds from multiple top executives in the crypto industry, netting him approximately $784,000 worth of digital assets, including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), and BTC. Since the time of the theft, the value of these coins has roughly doubled to $1.6 million. Assistant United State Attorney Olga Zverovich emphasized that these “were not childish crimes” and the stolen amount remains unrecovered.
In conclusion, while the successful prosecution of Joseph O’Conner can be seen as a win for regulatory authorities and a lesson for potential crypto criminals, it also underscores the need for improved security measures to prevent future incidents and protect users of digital currencies. Whether the crypto community and major social media platforms can effectively address these concerns remains to be seen.
Source: Cryptonews
