PANews reported on November 17th that, according to Sky News, British prosecutors revealed that 26-year-old British man Joseph James O'Connor hacked into the accounts of several celebrities to defraud them of Bitcoin and has been ordered to return approximately £4.1 million in cryptocurrency. In 2023, he was sentenced to five years in prison in the United States for crimes including computer hacking, wire fraud, and extortion. O'Connor was arrested in Spain in 2021, and his extradition was ordered by the Spanish High Court because the evidence and victims were all located in the United States, making the US the most suitable place for prosecution.
In July 2020, the social media platform X suffered a massive hack, compromising the accounts of celebrities such as Obama, Biden, and Bezos. O'Connor, along with accomplices, used these hacked accounts to set up a scam, tricking users into sending $1,000 worth of Bitcoin with a promise of double the return, thereby stealing over $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency and also threatening the celebrities. This Monday, the UK Crown Prosecution Service announced it had obtained a civil suit order to seize assets including 42 bitcoins. This valuation was determined after his assets were frozen, and the prosecution secured the freeze during extradition proceedings.


