TL;DR Breakdown
- 2020 Twitter Hack scammer faces trial for another cyber theft.
- Scammer in sim-swap attack dupes victim of around $784,000 in 2019.
- He is facing trial fpr an act commited before 2020 Twitter hack.
Joseph James O’Connor, 22, an accomplice in the famous 2020 Twitter Hack that saw the account of many celebrities, politicians and tech giants compromised for a crypto giveaway scam, is facing trial for another crypto theft case.
O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, was charged on Wednesday over a separate scheme resulting in the theft of $784,000 of cryptocurrency.
US prosecutors in Manhattan said Joseph James O’Connor, 22, and his accomplices stole bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin after gaining control of victims’ cellphone numbers by linking them to subscriber identity module cards, or SIM cards.
He allegedly attacked three executives of a Manhattan cryptocurrency company, stole cryptocurrency from two clients, and laundered what they stole in the sim-swapping scam.
However, the scam he is being charged for was perpetrated between Marc and May 2018, before the 2020 Twitter hack.
Notably, if O’Connor and his gang are convicted, they could spend up to 20-year jail terms or more.
O’Connor in the Twitter hack
Before his current trial, O’Connor was arrested in July for his role in the 2020 Twitter hack.
Accounts of personalities like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates were compromised for a crypto giveaway scam.
The incident also affected accounts belonging to major crypto entities, including Binance, Bitfinex, Coinbase, Changpeng Zhao, and Justin Sun.
He and the crew that ran that scam amassed over $118,000 in Bitcoin from unsuspecting victims by tweeting about fake giveaways.
O’Connor is in detention in Spain while US authorities push for his extradition. His partner in the Twitter hack, a teenager and mastermind of the hack, Graham Ivan Clark, pleaded guilty back in March in a Florida court and will serve a three-year jail term in a juvenile prison based on his agreement with authorities.
