(KRON) -- A United Kingdom citizen was extradited from Spain to the U.S. where he pleaded guilty Wednesday to several cybercrimes in New York and California for his roles in hacking Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat accounts, cyberstalking and stealing $794,000 in cryptocurrency.
In 2020, James O'Connor, 23,—A.K.A. "PlugWalkJoe"—and several other conspirators allegedly hacked various Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat accounts and, in some cases, used them to defraud other users or sold access to the accounts, including those of public figures around the world.
O'Connor allegedly hacked a TikTok account with over 1 million followers and used it to post self-promotional messages including a video in which his voice is recognizable, officials said. He also allegedly threatened to release personal information about the user to people who joined a certain Discord server. In 2019, O'Connor also allegedly hacked a SnapChat account and threatened to release private messages and images.
O'Connor also allegedly "swatted"—or falsely reported a crime in order to create a law enforcement response at a person's address—one victim. O'Connor allegedly falsely reported that the victim was threatening to shoot and kill multiple people at the address, resulting in every on-duty cop in the area to respond.
Between March and May of 2019, O'Connor allegedly stole $794,000 in cryptocurrency from a New York-based company that provided cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure and facilitated crypto exchanges around the world. O'Connor and conspirators allegedly hacked three company executives' phone numbers and used that control to access affiliated online accounts. O'Connor then allegedly laundered the cryptocurrency through dozens of transactions, exchanged some of it for Bitcoin and deposited it into his own cryptocurrency account.
For hacking the social medial accounts, O’Connor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and two counts of committing computer intrusions, making extortive communications and two counts of stalking and making threatening communications, for which he faces up to 27 years in prison. For stealing the cryptocurrency, O’Connor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, for which he faces up to 45 years in prison. O’Connor also agreed to forfeit $794,012.64 and to make restitution to victims of his crimes.
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He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23 by the Northern District of California Attorney's Office.
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