Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, and Ismail J. Ramsey, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, announced today the extradition and guilty plea of JOSEPH JAMES O’CONNOR, a/k/a “PlugwalkJoe,” a U.K. citizen. O’CONNOR was extradited from Spain on April 26, 2023, and pled guilty earlier today before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to two sets of charges: (i) conspiracy to commit computer hacking and other charges pending in the Southern District of New York relating to a fraudulent scheme perpetrated by O’CONNOR and his co-conspirators to use a cyber intrusion technique known as a SIM swap attack to steal approximately $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company and then to launder the proceeds of the scheme (the “SDNY Case”) and (ii) a set of charges filed in the Northern District of California, and transferred to the SDNY under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 20, relating to O’Connor’s role in the July 2020 hack of Twitter, computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts, and cyberstalking two separate victims (the “NDCA Case”).
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Joseph O’Connor, a/k/a “PlugwalkJoe,” used his sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes – conducting a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting computer intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, including a minor victim. O’Connor’s guilty plea today is a testament to the importance of law enforcement cooperation, and I thank our law enforcement partners for helping to bring to justice those who victimize others through cyber-attacks.”
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. said: “O’Connor’s criminal activities were flagrant and malicious, and his conduct impacted multiple people’s lives. He harassed, threatened, and extorted his victims, causing substantial emotional harm. Like many criminal actors, O’Connor tried to stay anonymous by using a computer to hide behind stealth accounts and aliases from outside the United States. But this plea shows that our investigators and prosecutors will identify, locate, and bring to justice such criminals to ensure they face the consequences for their crimes.”
NDCA U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said: “O’Connor has left an impressive trail of destruction in the wake of his wave of criminality. This case serves as a warning that the reach of the law is long, and criminals anywhere who use computers to commit crimes may end up facing the consequences of their actions in places they did not anticipate.”
According to the allegations in the publicly filed charging documents against O’CONNOR, court filings, and statements made in court:
The SDNY Case
During a cyber intrusion known as a SIM swap attack, cyber threat actors gain control of a victim’s mobile phone number by linking that number to a subscriber identity module (“SIM”) card controlled by the threat actors, resulting in the victim’s calls and messages being routed to a malicious unauthorized device controlled by the threat actors. The threat actors then typically use control of the victim’s mobile phone number to obtain unauthorized access to accounts held by the victim that are registered to the mobile phone number.
Between approximately March 2019 and May 2019, JOSEPH JAMES O’CONNOR and his co-conspirators perpetrated a scheme to use SIM swaps to conduct cyber intrusions in order to steal approximately $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company (“Company-1”), which, at all relevant times, provided wallet infrastructure and related software to cryptocurrency exchanges around the world.
As part of the scheme, O’CONNOR and his co-conspirators successfully perpetrated SIM swap attacks targeting at least three Company-1 executives. Following a successful SIM swap attack targeting one of the executives on or about April 30, 2019, O’CONNOR and his co-conspirators successfully gained unauthorized access to multiple Company-1 accounts and computer systems. On or about May 1, 2019, through their unauthorized access, O’CONNOR and his co-conspirators stole and fraudulently diverted cryptocurrency of various types (the “Stolen Cryptocurrency”) from cryptocurrency wallets maintained by Company-1 on behalf of two of its clients. The Stolen Cryptocurrency was worth at least approximately $794,000 at the time of the theft.
After stealing…
Read More: U.K. Citizen Extradited And Pleads Guilty To Cybercrime Offenses | USAO-SDNY