Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, a 24-year-old from Texas, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft exactly one year ago as part of the extortion crew known as Scattered Spider, but the plea only became public this week when prosecutors filed an order of forfeiture seeking the proceeds of his criminal activity. He operated alongside Noah Michael Urban, sentenced to 10 years in prison last year, and Tyler Robert Buchanan, a Scottish national who pleaded guilty to multiple cybercrimes in April and awaits sentencing; all three were among five individuals charged in 2024 as part of The Com's aggressive subset. According to the indictment, the group obtained credentials through social engineering, stole company data to identify high-net-worth employees holding virtual currency, and struck victims across entertainment, telecommunications, technology, business process outsourcing, IT, cloud and virtual currency sectors — at least 12 victim companies named in the indictment and 29 victims detailed by authorities. The largest thefts were nearly US$6.35 million in September 2021, $571,000 in June 2022 and nearly $1.7 million in December 2022. Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of Bitcoin worth more than US$14.19 million, Ethereum worth more than $3.4 million and nearly $63,000 in cash. The terms of the plea agreement have not been released.

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