A man from Scotland is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 21 for his guilty plea to conspiring to hack into company computer systems through text message phishing attacks and steal at least $8 million in virtual currency from victims across the United States.
Tyler Robert Buchanan, 24, of Dundee, Scotland, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said. He has been in federal custody since April 2025. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 22 years in federal prison.
According to his plea agreement, the cyber intrusions and virtual currency thefts occurred from September 2021 to April 2023 and involved multiple co-conspirators, prosecutors said.
The scheme targeted a range of victims, including technology, telecommunications, and entertainment companies, as well as business process outsourcing and information technology providers, cloud communications companies, virtual currency companies, and individuals.
Prosecutors said the conspirators carried out Short Message Service phishing attacks by sending text messages to employees of targeted companies. The messages appeared to come from the companies or their service providers and included links to fraudulent websites designed to resemble legitimate login pages.
When victims entered their information, the data was captured and used to access employee accounts and company systems. The stolen information included login credentials, names, email addresses, and telephone numbers, as well as other confidential company data.
Authorities said the conspirators also used stolen information to access virtual currency accounts belonging to individuals. In some cases, they conducted SIM swap attacks to take control of victims’ phone numbers and intercept authentication codes needed to access accounts.
Prosecutors said Buchanan admitted he possessed files related to numerous victim companies, as well as information tied to individual victims, including account access details. The scheme resulted in the theft of at least $8 million in virtual currency from victims throughout the United States.
A co-conspirator, Noah Michaek Urban, 21, who is also known as Sosa or Elijah of Palm Coast, Florida, previously pleaded guilty in April 2025 to three fraud-related offenses and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $13 million in restitution. Several other defendants charged in the case remain pending.
They were identified as Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, 24, of College Station, Texas, also known as AD; Evab Onyeaka Osiebo, 21, of Dallas, and Joel Martin Evans, 26, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, also known as Joeleoli.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from domestic and international law enforcement agencies.