Barack Obama And Joe Biden Twitter Account Hackers, Soon To Be Tried In The US

The 22-year-old teenager, Joseph James O'Connor, is behind a series of break-ins on the twitter accounts of politicians and celebrities. (photo: pinterest)

JAKARTA - A British man previously indicted in the United States on charges of involvement in the hacking of the Twitter accounts of politicians and celebrities was indicted on Wednesday 3 November over a separate scheme that resulted in the theft of $784,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

US prosecutors in Manhattan said Joseph James O'Connor, 22, and his accomplices stole bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin after gaining control of the victim's cell phone number by linking it to the customer's identity module card, or SIM card.

According to Prosecutors, O'Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, and his accomplices carried out the so-called SIM swap attack that targeted three Manhattan cryptocurrency company executives, stole cryptocurrency from two clients, and laundered what they could steal. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from March to May 2019.

O'Connor has been awaiting a possible extradition from Spain to the US, following his arrest on July 21 in connection with the July 2020 hack that compromised dozens of Twitter accounts and allegedly netted more than $118,000 worth of bitcoin.

The accounts include those of US President Joe Biden, former US President Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Elon Musk of Tesla, reality TV star Kim Kardashian and Ye, the rapper once known as Kanye West.

Graham Ivan Clark, a teenager accused of masterminding the Twitter hack, pleaded guilty in March in a Florida state court. He has also agreed to serve a three-year sentence in juvenile prison.

Wednesday's charges against O'Connor included conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, as well as identity theft and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.