James Cirrone

One of the people involved in the 2020 Twitter hack that targeted President Obama, Elon Musk, and other high profile accounts has been extradited from the UK to the US. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges.



The Southern District of New York is accusing Joseph James O’Connor, whose handle was “PlugwalkJoe,” of stealing and laundering approximately $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency from an unnamed Manhattan-based crypto company.&nbsp;



This scheme, which involved a SIM card swap hack of one of the company’s executives, took place between approximately March 2019 and May 2019, according to a Justice Department press release. After that, O’Connor and his co-conspirators initiated dozens of transfers to launder the stolen crypto, which included approximately 770 bitcoin cash (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bch">BCH</a>), 6,363 litecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ltc">LTC</a>), 407 ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>) and 7 bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>), according to the November 2021 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1446146/download">indictment</a>.&nbsp;



Following the theft of the funds, the next phase of the scam was to gain access to various high profile Twitter accounts. According to prosecutors, O’Connor and some of his co-conspirators took control of accounts themselves and tried to defraud other Twitter users.



These allegations seem to line up with the many fraudulent bitcoin scam tweets that popped up on the platform on July 15, 2020.



Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was targeted, his account dubiously <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/15/twitter-accounts-hacked-crypto-scam/">tweeting</a>, “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.”



Apple, CashApp, Kim Kardashian and other accounts with huge followings sent out similar tweets promising an easy pay day if users sent their bitcoin to the listed wallet address.&nbsp;



Industry players in the crypto space were targeted as well in the July 15 hack, CoinTelegraph <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/apparent-coordinated-twitter-attack-targets-binance-cz-gemini-and-more">reported</a>. At the time, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told users not to click on a trap link on Binance’s main Twitter account. Gemini, Coinbase, CoinDesk, Kucoin and @Bitcoin were also compromised.&nbsp;



O’Connor is set to be sentenced on June 23 and, with his guilty plea, he agreed to forfeit the entire sum of money that was stolen.&nbsp;



The district attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York didn’t immediately return a request for comment.



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2020 Twitter Hacker Extradited to US, Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud

Shalini Nagarajan

Former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to appear in Bahamian court on Monday and agree to US extradition.



Bankman-Fried was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-arrested-in-bahamas">arrested</a> in The Bahamas last week at the US government’s request, leaving his luxury penthouse for a prison cell.



The Bahamas has an extradition treaty with the US but the process isn’t clear-cut and can take weeks. 30-year-old Bankman-Fried is at the whim of Bahamian authorities as they “operate on their own timeline,” a source familiar with the matter told Blockworks.



The former FTX CEO is charged with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/us-indicts-sam-bankman-fried-on-conspiracy-to-defraud-the-us-wire-fraud-securities-fraud-and-money-laundering.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eight criminal counts</a> including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations. Prosecutors claim he was engaged in criminal activity since 2019 and didn’t stop until Nov. 2022.&nbsp;&nbsp;



If convicted of all eight charges, Bankman-Fried could be in prison for up to 115 years, per the Department of Justice’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/united-states-attorney-announces-charges-against-ftx-founder-samuel-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">indictment</a>.&nbsp;



Following his arrival in the US, he is expected to attend federal trial court in the Southern District of New York, the source said. The development was first reported by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sam-bankman-fried-reverse-decision-contesting-extradition-source-2022-12-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>. Bankman-Fried initially declined to waive his right to fight his extradition upon his arrest.



Defense lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma told Reuters the defamed crypto mogul will either be confined at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn or be taken to another facility outside the city. Blockworks reached out to Margulis-Ohnuma for comment.



When Bankman-Fried appears in US court, he will be expected to enter a plea, after which a judge would reach a bail determination. He was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/no-bail-for-bankman-fried-leaves-bahamas-court-in-handcuffs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">denied bail</a> in The Bahamas last week and was pictured leaving a court in handcuffs.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Bankman-Fried lawyers up ahead of extradition hearing</h3>



Bankman-Fried’s arrest was the first solid move by regulators to hold someone responsible for FTX’s multibillion-dollar implosion. He has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-new-attorney" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hired Mark Cohen</a> as his attorney, the same lawyer who represented Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex trafficking trial.



FTX’s surprise implosion in November coincided with allegations of the crypto exchange directing user funds to sister trading firm Alameda Research. 



New CEO John J. Ray III has <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BA/BA00/20221213/115246/HHRG-117-BA00-Wstate-RayJ-20221213.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> FTX went on a “spending binge” between 2019 and 2022 during which $5 billion was spent on a “myriad of businesses and investments” which may have been worth only a fraction of what was paid.



During one of his several recent media appearances, Bankman-Fried <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-still-thinks-hes-a-good-businessman" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">didn’t explicitly rule out the possibility</a> of a comeback attempt. He said he’d “give anything to be able to [pay users back]” and that he would try if he could — although that was before his arrest.



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Bankman-Fried Not Expected to Fight US Extradition After All

David Canellis

<div id="highlights-block_62ed4a944e9bb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Emms traveled to North Korea’s blockchain conference alongside Virgil Griffith in 2019</li>
 <li>The US wants to extradite him but has yet to provide supporting evidence</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Christopher Emms, a veteran crypto insider, is stuck in limbo in Saudi Arabia following his arrest at the direction of the US government in February.



US officials claim Emms was one of the masterminds behind <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-insider-stuck-in-saudi-arabia-over-north-korean-conference/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Korea’s 2019 blockchain conference</a> — also attended by Ethereum programmer <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/virgil-griffith-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-in-n-korean-sanctions-case/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virgil Griffith</a>, later sentenced to five years in prison.&nbsp;



US authorities are pushing for extradition, however, they’ve provided no fresh evidence in six months.&nbsp;



Not only did the conference, which Emms paid thousands of dollars to attend, occur at the depths of the last bear market, but relations between the US and Pyongyang were somewhat of a fever dream at the time.



Then-President Donald Trump had just crossed the peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49394758" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plant</a> a tree and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/we-fell-in-love-trump-and-kim-shower-praise-stroke-egos-on-path-to-nuclear-negotiations/2019/02/24/46875188-3777-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hug</a> it out with leader Kim Jong Un. Former NBA star Dennis Rodman had also visited, and even <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/12/17453738/dennis-rodman-potcoin-north-korea-singapore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promoted</a> the short-lived crypto project “PotCoin” during the summit.



Emms&#8217; situation, mired by legal fees, has left him broke, he says, as job prospects within the cryptocurrency industry have now dried up. Blockworks recently sat down with Emms for a video interview.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks: What’s your current situation?



Emms: I’ve been in Saudi Arabia for six whole months. I was actually only in jail for less than 24 hours. I can&#8217;t rent an apartment here because I don&#8217;t have residency, so I move hotels every few weeks, whatever I can get on Booking.com, essentially, which isn&#8217;t extortionate.



It’s difficult because the US decided to freeze all my bank accounts, my Binance — any kind of exchange that would facilitate any kind of fiat. I&#8217;m literally just borrowing funds from friends and family just to pay the bills.&nbsp;



Blockworks: How did your trip to North Korea come about?



Emms: <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/59eapx/north-koreas-spanish-ambassador-just-got-arrested-for-arms-trafficking" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alejandro Cao de Benós</a> invited me over there. He was the one who instigated the whole thing. The FBI is accusing me of organizing it. Common sense will prevail, but there’s not exactly any way I could’ve organized it.&nbsp;



I&#8217;m not North Korean. I don&#8217;t have any ties to the North Korean government. I&#8217;m just a random crypto dude. So, [Cao de Benós] was really the only one that could organize the whole thing. He reached out to me in 2018 via LinkedIn and said, “Hi, I’ve seen your profile. I&#8217;m organizing this conference in Pyongyang. Do you want to go?”&nbsp;



I thought, “Am I legally covered to do this?” I did the typical crypto bro thing: I Googled it. I checked the Foreign Office website as a UK citizen. I checked the UN website and I didn&#8217;t see that speaking at a conference in North Korea was breaking any laws.



Blockworks: What was North Korea like?



Emms: We flew to Beijing, where we got our visas, then got on a plane and flew to Pyongyang on the state airline. We get to the airport, it&#8217;s a carbon copy of whatever you&#8217;ve seen in any YouTube documentary of a journalist going to North Korea: brand new airport, no one in it.&nbsp;



We went through immigration, this grumpy North Korean guy stamps your passport and you get your baggage. And then you go through their version of customs, they don&#8217;t just check your luggage, they check every single electronic device you have, and go through your photos. One of the guys that attended the conference decided that he would bring a home video of a pornographic nature.&nbsp;



At that point, all our passports are confiscated, everyone attending, it&#8217;s around eight people in total. We&#8217;re then checked into our hotel and told this is a very serious crime in North Korea, to bring in content like this. You can tell not only is it highly embarrassing, it&#8217;s also scary because the guides — the people chaperoning us around — they’re not only angry but also highly embarrassed.



Blockworks: How was the conference?



Emms: Before the conference, they took us to see the “sights.” You see museums, you get taken to a school, to a video games arcade where there&#8217;s no one — there’s no one in any of these places.&nbsp;&nbsp;



At the back end of the seven- or eight-day trip was this “conference.” It wouldn&#8217;t fulfill the definition of any other kind of conference you have seen. It was in what’s called the High Tech Park building, a big impressive building — absolutely empty, with Windows XP computers.



Eventually, we were taken into a room with around 20 people inside. It was hardly the North Korean special branch, it was mostly housewives and middle aged functionaries who didn&#8217;t want to be there. Seems as though they&#8217;d been told to go.



We were given no preparation at all, we&#8217;d been given a load of shit, papers that were copied and pasted off Google given us by [Cao de Benós] with different talking points, high level stuff like “Blockchain and Tech” and “Blockchain and Peace.”&nbsp;



We’re all in the room and thinking: “Who&#8217;s going to speak on what? How are we going to deal with this?” 



Blockworks: Did you interact much with authorities after the trip?



Emms: The British government interviewed me extensively, including intelligence services. I&#8217;ve been through the whole wringer. They told me, “We don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ve done anything wrong.”&nbsp;



The initial conversation was when I arrived back in the UK from North Korea, I was pulled over at the airport by a policeman, and didn&#8217;t hear anything at the time, but as soon as I got home I picked up the phone and called and said, “Look, can I be of any more help? Let me know.”



But it wasn&#8217;t until after Virgil&#8217;s arrest that I finally got a full on sit down interview with two intelligence officers, where we went over everything. They found, as has been confirmed by my MP in the UK, British authorities aren’t pressing charges on anything in the UK or internationally.



Blockworks: How are you feeling about it all?



Emms: It’s very strange, what happens to you psychologically, in this situation. Initially, you&#8217;re in this very fight and flight mode, then you go into a very low place. A lot of people take their own lives because the mental processes are incredibly grueling.



It’s kind of like going through a breakup really, in a weird way, in your body. It&#8217;s literally: “Oh God, I need to survive this thing, why is this happening to me?”



Then you get to a point of acceptance and you deal with it. I feel incredibly let down by the British government. It&#8217;s pretty unreal, especially when they&#8217;ve conducted their own investigation into me, and then they basically just leave me out to dry.&nbsp;



Blockworks: How likely is a positive outcome?



Emms: The best case scenario isn&#8217;t even that great. Even if I make it back to the UK, I will go through the US extradition process, which we&#8217;ve seen time and time again is not that great, specifically with Julian Assange. That process is very one sided.



I&#8217;ve got no problem with that, because all I want to do is go through a process where I make my argument, and my argument is really clear. I believe I&#8217;m innocent.&nbsp;



Regardless, this is a US crime applicable to US people only. I should be tried based on my passport, which says very specifically that I am British. I&#8217;ve never been a “US person.” I&#8217;ve never had a green card. I&#8217;ve never lived in the US. I&#8217;m not American, no one in my family is.&nbsp;



A lot of people have said going to North Korea was incredibly naive. Of course, it was. But at the time, the way we [the crypto industry] approached things was so different than we would right now. There was a lack of clarity on so many things. And I don&#8217;t think anyone, in my view, thought they were doing anything wrong. I still don&#8217;t think we were doing anything wrong.&nbsp;



This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.



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