Former BreachForums admin to be jailed until Jan. 19 sentencing
A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday ordered that Conor Fitzpatrick be held in jail until his Jan. 19 sentencing for his role in running the notorious BreachForums cybercrime website.
Fitzpatrick was arrested Jan. 2 after prosecutors said he violated the conditions of his pretrial release by using a computer without the required monitoring software and using virtual private network (VPN) services. During the appearance Friday morning, his lawyers did not contest prosecutors’ request to keep him detained, according to a court filing.
Fitzpatrick, 21, was originally arrested in March 2023 at his parents’ home about 40 miles from New York City for his role in establishing and administering BreachForums, a cybercrime forum where stolen data is traded, advertised and sold. At the time of his arrest, the FBI said the forum contained at least 888 datasets consisting of more than 14 billion individual records related to people, companies and government agencies around the world.
Fitzpatrick, who went by the online moniker “Pompompurin,” pleaded guilty July 13, 2023, to three felony counts related to the operation, including conspiracy to commit access device fraud and access device fraud — unauthorized solicitation. He was released on a $300,000 bond, with sentencing originally scheduled for Nov. 17, 2023, and then rescheduled for Jan. 19, 2024.
Fitzpatrick faces up to five years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
As part of the conditions for his release, Fitzpatrick agreed to not use a computer or the internet without computer monitoring software and to not use VPNs or any other tools to obfuscate his identity.
The FBI seized the BreachForum domains in June 2023 but by July a replacement site with the same name and the same look was up and running, emerging from a bevy of copycat and competing cybercrime forums. That site remains active.
Fitzpatrick’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
