Owner of Breach Forums Pompompurin Arrested in New York

Pompompurin has been charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (aka Pompompurin, aka Pom), a 2021 graduate of Peekskill High School, has been arrested for running the notorious dark web data breach site BreachForums, according to FBI Special Agent John Longmire.

It is worth noting that Breach Forums surfaced as an alternative to the popular and now-seized Raidforums in 2022.

Owner of Breach Forums Pompompurin Arrested in New York — Pompompurin’s profile on Breach Forums (Screen credit: Hackread.com)

Fitzpatrick was arrested by a team of investigators at his home in Peekskill, New York, on Wednesday and charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud. His arrest has also been confirmed by administrators of the forum, Hackread.com can confirm.

BreachForums, which hosted the stolen databases of almost 1,000 companies and websites, was a well-known site among cybercriminals who sold personal information, including names, emails, and passwords.

This is the same forum where sensitive data, such as the US No Fly List, FBI’s InfraGard, DC Health Link with Members of Congress data, and more, were recently leaked.

Fitzpatrick, who operated under the name “pompompurin” on the site, admitted to being the owner and operator of the site, according to Longmire’s statement.

Cybersecurity investigators had been closely monitoring Fitzpatrick for over a year before his arrest, considering him a significant player in the cybercrime ecosystem. In November 2021, Fitzpatrick claimed responsibility for sending out fake emails from a “fbi.gov” email address.

Breach Forums to Stay Online

At the time of publishing this article, the Breach Forums were still accessible and the dataset of 888 companies and organizations was available for download. This is because one of the forum administrators, who goes by the alias Baphomet, has claimed responsibility for taking over the forum to keep it running and protect it from being seized by authorities.

Owner of Breach Forums Pompompurin in New York — This is what Baphomet had to say (Screen credit: Hackread.com)

Nevertheless, according to Bloomberg, the charges filed against Fitzpatrick in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, have not been made public. Fitzpatrick was presented in federal court in White Plains, New York, and released on a $300,000 unsecured bond, signed by his parents.

He is required to avoid any contact with codefendants, coconspirators, and witnesses in the case and is due to appear in court in Alexandria on March 24.