BreachForums admin arrested again for using unattended PC and VPN
The owner and administrator of hacker forum BreachForums has been arrested again for violating the conditions of his provisional release. For example, he allegedly used an unattended computer and a VPN. The man had been free since March after his parents posted $300,000 bail.
As part of his provisional release, the 21-year-old man, named Conor Brian Fitzpatrick and the alias Pompompurin, was prohibited from using a VPN service and a computer without active monitoring software, among other things. The Register, among others, writes based on court documents that he was rearrested earlier this month for violating both conditions. He must now remain in custody until his appearance in court, both for violating the conditions of his pre-trial release and for his previous charges.
Fitzpatrick was arrested in March 2023 on a single count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud. He reportedly immediately admitted to being a pompompurin and pleaded guilty to three different charges in July. In addition to the aforementioned, this involved access device fraud and possession of images of child abuse.
He and his team are said to have looted approximately $698,714 using BreachForums, as well as an undisclosed amount of cryptocurrency. His two access device fraud charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. For possession of child abuse material, the man faces a prison sentence of up to twenty years and an additional $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for later this month.
BreachForums is seen as the spiritual successor to RaidForums. There, files containing personal data were regularly shared or offered for sale, which had been collected, for example, by scraping or hacks. RaidForums was taken offline in April 2022 through a collaboration between the FBI, Europol and other parties. BreachForums was taken down last March after Fitzpatrick’s arrest, but was later reopened under a different domain name by a previous admin of the hacker forum.