On Friday, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia ordered Conor Fitzpatrick will remain in custody until his sentencing on January 19th for his role in running the notorious cybercrime website Breach Forum.
Fitzpatrick is Arrested on January 2nd Prosecutors argued that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by using a computer without the required monitoring software and using a virtual private network (VPN) service. During a court appearance Friday morning, his attorney did not object to prosecutors’ request to remain in custody, according to court filings.
Fitzpatrick, 21, was first arrested in March 2023 at his parents’ home about 40 miles from New York City for his role in founding and managing Breach Forum, a cybercrime forum where stolen data was traded, promoted and sold. was arrested. At the time of his arrest, the FBI said The forum included at least 888 datasets consisting of more than 14 billion personal records related to people, businesses, and government agencies around the world.
Fitzpatrick was nicknamed “Pom Pom Purin” online. Pleaded guilty on July 13, 2023was charged with three felonies related to this operation, including conspiracy to commit access device fraud and access device fraud (unauthorized solicitation). He was released on $300,000 bail and sentencing was originally scheduled for November 17, 2023, but rescheduled For January 19, 2024.
Fitzpatrick could face up to five years in prison. According to the Department of Justice.
As part of the conditions of his releaseFitzpatrick agreed not to use a computer or the Internet without computer monitoring software and not to use a VPN or other tools to obscure his identity.
of FBI seizes BreachForum domain It was taken down in June 2022, but by July a replacement site with the same name and appearance had been launched, emerging from a swarm of copycat sites and competing cybercrime forums. That site remains active.
Mr. Fitzpatrick’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.