Court: Spain may extradite suspect of bitcoin scams on Twitter to US

A Spanish court has approved the extradition of a 23-year-old Briton to the US over his alleged involvement in the major Twitter hack of 2020, in which more than 100 prominent Twitter accounts were taken over for a bitcoin scam.

The 23-year-old Briton, known by the alias Plugwalk Joe, is suspected, among other things, of gaining illegal access to computers, committing computer fraud, laundering money and being part of a criminal organization. The suspect’s lawyer claimed that the man should not be extradited because he would receive disproportionately high sentences in the United States, but the Spanish court did not agree.

Spanish police arrested the man in July 2021 for his alleged involvement in the Twitter attack and for hacks on other social media. The Twitter hack took over accounts of 130 Twitter users, including those of prominent individuals and companies such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Apple. On these accounts, the hackers posted messages with bitcoin addresses and the promise that anyone who transferred bitcoin would get the cryptocurrency back doubled. The hackers gained access through social engineering, Twitter announced shortly after the attack.

Plugwalk Joe would also have done swatting, pretending that an airport was going to be blown up and an armed person wanted to hurt his family. He did so in the hope of getting a response from the police. In addition, he would have blackmailed someone with nude photos.

According to the Spanish medium The Local the Spanish government has yet to agree to the extradition. Plugwalk Joe can also appeal. At the time of the attack, the native Briton was seventeen years old. In addition to Plugwalk Joe, two Americans and another Briton have previously been charged with involvement in the hack.