A British man responsible for one of the most high-profile social media hacks in recent years has been ordered to hand over £4.1 million in stolen cryptocurrency. Joseph O’Connor, 26, from Liverpool, was behind the 2020 Twitter—now X—Bitcoin scam in which more than 130 accounts were hijacked, including those belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Apple, and Bill Gates.
O’Connor, known online as PlugwalkJoe, fled to Spain after the incident but was later arrested and extradited to the United States. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his cybercrimes. Now, under a new order, he must forfeit millions in cryptocurrency linked to the scam and other hacks.
The scheme involved O’Connor and other young accomplices gaining access to Twitter’s internal administrative tools by convincing several employees to surrender their login credentials. Using social engineering tactics, the group took control of celebrity and corporate accounts, posting messages that urged followers to send Bitcoin with the promise of having their money doubled.
Over July 15–16, 2020, thousands of users saw the fraudulent tweets, and 426 Bitcoin transfers were made to the scammers’ digital wallets. In total, they stole more than 12.86 BTC, worth roughly $110,000 (£83,500) at the time—now valued at about $1.2 million.
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service recovered 42 Bitcoin and additional cryptocurrency tied to O’Connor. Investigators believe some of the assets were obtained through other hacks he committed with teenagers he met while playing Call of Duty online.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said O’Connor “targeted well-known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money,” adding that even without a UK conviction, authorities ensured he “did not benefit from his criminality.”
