A 24-year-old British national, a senior member of the cybercrime group Scattered Spider, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Tyler Robert Buchanan, who used the hacker handle “Tylerb,” admitted his role in a series of SMS-based phishing attacks in 2022 that allowed intrusions at a number of technology companies and helped steal tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from investors.
FBI investigators linked Buchanan to the 2022 campaign through the same username and email address used to register phishing domains, and he is now in U.S. custody awaiting sentencing, with a potential sentence of more than 20 years in prison. The group later carried out SIM-swapping attacks to siphon funds from individual cryptocurrency investors, and Buchanan is the second Scattered Spider member to plead guilty, with others facing charges or awaiting trial.
Buchanan fled the UK in 2023, was arrested by Spanish authorities in 2024, and extradited to the United States, where he has remained in federal custody since April 2025; his sentencing hearing is scheduled for 21 August 2026.