A Spanish court on Friday gave the green light to extradite a young Briton to the United States. The 23-year-old is suspected of having hacked the Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, among others, in 2020.
The Audiencia Nacional, the only national court in Spain that deals with complex or sensitive cases as well as extraditions, “has granted the request of the US authorities” for the extradition “of a 23-year-old Briton who allegedly participated in several cyber-attacks “. The decision can still be appealed.
Joseph O’Connor (22) was arrested in July 2021 in the south of Spain at the request of the US, which suspected him of having participated in the hacking of 130 Twitter accounts of public figures a year earlier. He was charged by the US federal prosecutor for his role in the spectacular attack, which targeted the accounts of US President Joe Biden, then presidential candidate, billionaire Bill Gates and former President Barack Obama, among others.
Not in proportion
The defense of the Briton argued that the sentences for these offenses in the United States are disproportionate to what would be imposed on him in Spain. His lawyers argued that he should be tried in Spain because the computer servers used for the attacks were located there.
That argument was rejected by the court, which ruled that the necessary conditions were met for the transfer of Joseph O’Connor, aka ‘Plugwalk Joe’, to the United States,” the court said in a press release.
Cryptocurrencies
According to the researchers, the scam consisted of taking control of a well-known person’s account and then posting a message asking his followers to send bitcoins to a bank account, promising to double the amount. The hackers are said to have pocketed more than $ 100,000 (93,600 euros) in crypto coins through 400 transfers from gullible internet users.
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