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The Eastern District of Virginia courts have sentenced the former admin and creator of the infamous hacking forum BreachForums to 20 years of supervised release.
The lead administrator and creator of BreachForums, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, who acted under the name “Pompompurin”, was charged with one count of conspiracy to solicit individuals to sell unauthorised access devices when he was arrested on 15 March 2023.
Prior to his sentencing, the US government was pushing for Fitzpatrick to be hit with an almost 16-year sentence, which is on the lower side of the recommended sentencing for the charge, likely as he cooperated with the government.
Fitzpatrick faced sentencing on 19 January, and despite what the government initially wanted, the courts showed mercy and sentenced him to time served plus 20 years of supervised release, with the first two years to be served as house arrest with a GPS locator.
“The defendant shall not have any access to the internet within the first year of his supervised release,” the sentencing read.
“After that year, the defendant shall not sell or offer to sell any item on the internet for another person or entity without pre-approval and authorisation from the court or probation officer. This includes, but is not limited to, selling items on internet auction sites.”
Additionally, Fitzpatrick will be required to pay compensation to the victims who suffered as a result of the actions of BreachForums. The amount he will be required to pay will be decided at a later date.
The government’s initial proposal, as reported previously, was to put Fitzpatrick behind bars for 15.7 years, or 188 months.
“The defendant’s administration of BreachForums played an instrumental role in bringing together more than 300,000 members to solicit, distribute, and access thousands of breached databases containing the stolen data of hundreds of companies, organisations, and governmental organisations of varying size and the PII of millions of US persons,” said the proposal documents.
“By creating a platform for hackers and fraudsters to connect and conduct business, the defendant made it possible for BreachForums members to commit exponentially more crimes and more sophisticated crimes than any could have done alone.”
In addition to his crimes, the FBI also discovered 26 files containing child pornography on an SSD that was seized. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to all crimes.
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