Jailed British hacker who hijacked X accounts including Apple, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama—then used them for a 'double your money' Bitcoin scam—has to hand back $5.4 million in ill-gotten crypto gains

A bitcoin behind bars. — (Image credit: Velischuk via Getty Images)

A Brit who hacked multiple high-profile Twitter / X accounts in 2020, and who was extradited to the US and jailed in 2023, has now been ordered to hand over £4.1 million ($5.4 million) in ill-gotten crypto gains (thanks, BBC).

Joseph O'Connor, now 26 years old, hijacked over 130 accounts, including those of Apple, Uber, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Kanye West. Alongside other hackers, three of whom have been charged, they then impersonated the companies / individuals in question and used the accounts to promote a classic "double your money" scam.

The hijacked accounts would send tweets asking followers to send Bitcoin to digital wallets, promising that the money would be doubled and returned. An estimated 350 million Twitter users viewed these dodgy tweets and, over 15-16 July 2020, a total of 426 transfers totalling 12.86 Bitcoin was made to the wallets. This would have been worth around $110,000 in 2020: now the value would be more like $1.2 million.

Hacker — (Image credit: Thianchai Sitthikongsak/Getty)

O'Connor is currently serving a five year sentence in the US, but this new asset seizure was led by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has managed to recover 42 Bitcoin and other assets from the fraudster. Obviously this is a higher value than the Twitter hack alone: the CPS says its investigators believe that the additional Bitcoin was also obtained through hacks, adding the detail that O'Connor carried these out with other young men he'd met through Call of Duty.

"Even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality," said Adrian Foster of the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

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