Hacker Earns Over $200,000 by Selling Ed Sheeran’s Stolen Songs
The hacker was found guilty on three charges of accessing unauthorized computers. He was also charged with 14 copyrights offenses and two counts of possessing criminal property.
A hacker from Ipswich, England allegedly made over £200000 ($2,34,234) by pirating music of famous American artists such as Lil Uzi Vert and Ed Sheeran.
According to reports, 22-year-old Adrian Kwiatkowski, a resident of Hampton Roads, hacked computers and made digital copies of popular songs including “Give Me That” and “Buttery” by Ed Sheeran and other artists.
The hacker was caught after a US musician complained to the New York District Attorney’s office. The report was then transferred to the City of London police, and authorities arrested him. Kwiatkowski had approximately £200,000 in cash and cryptocurrency in his account.
Post his arrest, Kwiatkowski was found guilty of three charges of accessing unauthorized computers. He was also charged with 14 copyrights offenses and two counts of possessing criminal property.
The offenses were recorded on three dates — the copyright offense on September 12, 2019, and unauthorized access on February 26 and 27, 2019.
Music piracy hacker receives possession charges
Kwiatkowski received two possession charges from the court related to the cash he had with him at the time of the arrest (£61,858,), which was carried out between June 2018 and July 2019. The second charge was for the possession of bitcoin cryptocurrency worth £21,729 on September 12, 2019.
The case prosecutor, David Bryant, told East Anglian Daily Times, “It would appear that the defendant had some £86,000 in bank accounts and some £100,000 in cryptocurrency, so accordingly there will be proceeds of crime application because of the defendant’s criminality.”
Additionally, at the time of arrest, Kwiatkowsk had access to various email accounts, social media pages, and online storage accounts, which come under “unauthorized access”, better known as hacking,’ added prosecutor Bryant.
The prosecutor also denoted that since Kwiatkowski had access to all this information, including songs from various US-based artists, “It meant that the defendant was then able to offer for sale various artists’ work.”
Kwiatkowski is currently out on conditional bail and is required to appear at the Ipswich Crown Court soon. The bail condition includes that he must surrender his passport and attend court on the next hearing date.
