Former BreachForums owner faces resentencing after violating his supervised release

Connor Fitzpatrick, the founder and administrator of dark web platform BreachForums, is facing a resentencing after the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s initial decision of setting him free after 17 days in prison was annulled by an Appellate court.

 

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Connor Fitzpatrick in March 2023 for running a hacking forum that enabled cyber crime. The US Department of Justice said the then 20-year-old hacker operated BreachForums as a marketplace for cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade hacked or stolen data and other contraband since March 2022.

 

Fitzpatrick surrendered all his documents and was barred from contacting witnesses, co-defendants, or co-conspirators. Court documents also reveal that Fitzpatrick’s primary intention in operating BreachForums was to engage in and facilitate the trafficking of stolen or hacked databases, including access devices. His actions amounted to aiding and abetting cyber criminal activities on a global scale.

 

In fact, the US government recommended to the Court that Fitzpatrick be sentenced to fifteen years and eight months in prison which would reflect the seriousness of his crimes.

 

The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia finally sentenced Fitzpatrick to 20 years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him that included possession of child pornography and conspiracy to traffic stolen personally identifying information.

 

Recently, Appellate Court Judge Paul Niemeyer slammed the initial sentencing of Fitzpatrick, stating the decision was made keeping in mind his young age and his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis for which he might not receive the required treatment in prison “and that he would be ‘ravaged’.”

 

“On appeal, the government contends that the district court abused its discretion by imposing a substantively unreasonable sentence. We agree. Accordingly, we vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing,” reads the court document.

 

Judge Niemeyer added that Fitzpatrick operated “the largest ever English-language online marketplace for buying and selling stolen personal data, which featured over 14 billion individual records of millions of persons” and downloaded “at least 600 images of child pornography and viewed prepubescent girls engaging in sexual acts.”

 

“This sentence was even below what Fitzpatrick’s friends on the Internet in chats after his guilty plea had jokingly expected that he would receive — ‘ur gonna get like a month,’.

 

“Moreover, the court does not appear to have considered how such an extreme variance might contribute to unwarranted sentencing disparities. The court seemingly failed to consider that Fitzpatrick immediately and continuously violated the conditions of his presentence release while at home under the supervision of his parents. Indeed, Fitzpatrick committed the very offenses at issue while living at home with his parents,” the judge added.