Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the US for the hacks which involved scamming people out of Bitcoin and threatening celebrities with the release of personal images and messages.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) proceeds of crime division has obtained a civil recovery order to recover 42 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency that O’Connor made from the scheme, which holds the value of around £4.1m.

The CPS team worked with partners in the USA and Spain to ensure that the order could be served against O’Connor stopping him from being able to hide the assets from authorities.

Adrian Foster, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS proceeds of crime division, said: “Joseph James O’Connor targeted well known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money.

“We were able to use the full force of the powers available to us to ensure that even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality.”