Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, the owner of the infamous cybercrime website BreachForums, was sentenced last week to time served and 20 years of supervised release.
The man, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, of Peekskill, New York, known online as ‘Pompompurin’, was arrested in March 2023. In April, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit device fraud, access device fraud, and possession of child pornography.
Launched in 2022 and also known as Breached, BreachForums had become a top hacker marketplace when it was taken down in March 2023. The website reemerged soon after, believed to be run by an individual known online as Baphomet.
The website’s users could sell or buy hacked or stolen data such as Social Security numbers, banking information, personally identifiable information, and credentials for online accounts, along with hacking tools and hack-for-hire services.
Surprisingly, while prosecutors recommended that Fitzpatrick be sentenced to 188 months in prison, a district judge sentenced him to the time served on each count and supervised release with special conditions. He will serve the first two years on home arrest.
The sentence is even more surprising because Fitzpatrick was not detained for long while awaiting trial. Last year, he was granted pretrial release on bond, but was arrested on January 2, 2024, for violating the conditions of the bond.
Fitzpatrick was initially scheduled to be sentenced on November 17, 2023, but the hearing was pushed back to January 19, 2024, at the request of his legal representatives.
According to court documents obtained by DataBreaches.net, Fitzpatrick is prohibited from accessing the internet during the first year of supervised release, from possessing or viewing pornographic materials, and from having “intentional contact with any child under the age of 18, except for his brother, Brendan Fitzpatrick, unless accompanied by a responsible adult.”
The supervised release sentence seems like a slap on the wrist, given that the possession of child pornography alone could have resulted in a 20 years prison sentence. However, Fitzpatrick’s mental health or his cooperation with the authorities might have contributed to the light sentence.
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