Joseph James O’Connor, a U.K. citizen and one of the perpetrators of the 2020 Twitter hack, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in several cybercrime offenses.

According to a press release by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sentenced O’Connor for two sets of charges: conspiracy to commit computer hacking and the theft of cryptocurrencies via a SIM swap attack; his role in the 2020 Twitter hack, cyberstalking two separate victims, and computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts.

O’Connor Lands Five-Year Jail Term

The 24-year-old convict was extradited from Spain on April 26, 2023, and he pled guilty to the charges brought against him on May 9, 2023. He was faced with a 20-year jail term or more.

Among his offenses, O’Connor used a SIM swap attack to steal bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) worth $794,000 at the time from three executives in a Manhattan-based crypto company. The fraudulent scheme lasted from March to May 2019. The stolen assets are currently worth more than $1.6 million, and O’Connor, alongside his co-conspirators, laundered them through several crypto exchange accounts.

In addition, O’Connor participated in a range of crimes associated with exploiting TikTok and Snapchat accounts, online extortion, and cyberstalking between 2019 and 2020. On one occasion, O’Connor and his accomplices obtained unauthorized access to a public figure’s TikTok account with millions of followers and posted self-promotional messages, threatening to release sensitive materials to a designated group of individuals.

O’Connor’s Role in the 2020 Twitter Hack

Furthermore, O’Connor participated in a massive 2020 Twitter hack that saw the accounts of top politicians and celebrities breached. Some victims inclu