Prosecutors say Conor Fitzpatrick's crimes caused 'incalculable' damage

The founder of the popular cybercrime website BreachForums will spend three years in prison after previously being let off with a slap on the wrist.

After pleading guilty to a range of offenses related to his administration of BreachForums and possession of child sex abuse material, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, 22, was handed by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia what a US appeals court later called a "substantively unreasonable sentence."

After his original 2023 arrest at his parents' home in Peekskill, New York, Fitzpatrick violated his pretrial conditions – namely, the use of a VPN – and was jailed as a result. However, he was released less than a month later following the lenient sentence given to him in 2024.

Fitzpatrick's time-served sentence of just 17 days, plus 20 years of supervised release, was deemed insufficient by appellate court judge Paul Niemeyer, who ordered a resentencing.

Prosecutors in ...