British hacker loses $5.4M after new court recovery order

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Yaroslav Dmytrenko

17.11.2025

British hacker loses $5.4M after new court recovery order — Civil order forces notorious hacker to repay millions in crypto

One of the few people who might welcome the cryptocurrency market crash is British hacker Joseph James O’Connor. The Crown Prosecution Service has imposed a civil recovery order requiring him to return 235 Ethereum, 42 BTC, and 143,000 BUSD — the devalued Binance stablecoin backed by the US dollar — worth approximately $5.4 million.

The British hacker gained worldwide notoriety after he hacked the social media profiles of dozens of celebrities in 2020, including former US President Barack Obama and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, later using them for SIM-swapping fraud and cryptocurrency theft.

In 2023, O’Connor pleaded guilty and was sentenced by a judge in the Southern District of New York to five years in prison. At the time, he was ordered to pay $794,012 in forfeiture. Now another penalty has been added — this time in his home country.

“Joseph James O’Connor targeted high-profile individuals and used their accounts to deceive people into handing over their cryptocurrency assets and money,” said Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Proceeds of Crime Division, adding that the prosecution used all available powers to ensure O’Connor would not profit from his crimes, even without a UK conviction.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the civil recovery order covers roughly 235 Ethereum, 42 BTC, and 143,000 BUSD, valued at about $5.4 million today.

Old and new social media account hacking schemes

Decrypt reports that scams involving hacked celebrity social media profiles remain among the most common. O’Connor, for example, encouraged victims — in the name of famous individuals — to send small amounts of bitcoin to a designated address with the promise of receiving more in return.

More recently, hacked accounts have been used to promote scam meme coins. Earlier this year, hackers promoted a fake UFC Meme coin on the Solana blockchain after taking over an Instagram account, stealing $1.4 million.

Similarly, last year the hijacking of McDonald’s Instagram account netted hackers $700,000 through a fake Grimace token. Many celebrity and brand accounts have been compromised to run pump-and-dump schemes involving fraudulent meme coins.

According to a mid-year report by analytics firm Chainalysis, more than $2.1 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen from users since the beginning of 2025, with an increasing share of losses linked to personal wallet hacks.

As we wrote, Coinbase hacker buys $12.5M in ETH after two-month silence

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