Serial Hacker Who Steals Data And Sell Them For Cryptocurrency

A British national, Kai West, known online as IntelBroker, was caught and indicted for working with an online cybercrime group CyberN***gers to steal data and sell them online in exchange for cryptocurrency.

According to reports, West has stolen from many giant companies, including telecommunications company, municipal healthcare providers, and an internet service provider on top of 40 other corporations.

In one of the cases, the data leaked triggered by West even caused more than $25 million in damage.

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton, who helped unseal the indictment, gave a grave warning to other hackers, expressing how the FBI was determined to treat cybercrimes with the utmost seriousness

“This action reflects the FBI’s commitment to pursuing cybercriminals around the world.”

The Undercover Bitcoin Sting

West was nabbed from an undercover Sting operation, where undercover law enforcement agents pretended to be a potential buyer of stolen data.

The agent reached out to west by sending him a private message to purchase stolen data from $250 in Bitcoin.

West allegedly provided a Bitcoin address, and after receiving payment, delivered admin-level usernames and passwords to the agent.

This transaction provided key evidence linking West to the illegal sale of sensitive information.

Investigators traced the Bitcoin wallet used in the deal to a Ramp account registered to West’s UK driver’s license, which was also tied to a Coinbase account under the alias “Kyle Northern.”

These connections enabled law enforcement to confirm West’s real-world identity and his control over the IntelBroker persona.

West was arrested in France in February 2025 and remains in custody pending extradition to the United States, where he faces charges including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and accessing a protected computer to defraud and obtain value.

Four additional suspects—alleged BreachForums administrators—were also arrested in France as part of a broader crackdown on cybercrime.

Scale of the Operation

The investigation also found West's extensive activities on an online market place called BreachForums. Over a two-year period, West allegedly posted 158 threads offering stolen data for sale in exchange for Forum-1 credits (BreachForums' internal currency) and sometimes even for free.

Between January 2023 to February 2025, with at least 41 of his threads selling data from companies based in the United States.

Among those 158 threads, 16 posts included a specific asking price for the data, reaching a total of at least $2,467,000.

Messages allegedly written by West also showed that he accepted payments through the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero.(XMR)

West’s prominence on the forum grew to the point where he was identified as the site’s administrator starting in August 2024.

The Insurgence Of Data-related Crimes

The arrest comes amid a surge in high-profile data leaks and breaches, including the recent exposure of more than 16 billion login credentials from major online service providers.

Earlier this month, Coinbase disclosed that an employee of an outsourcing firm had leaked customer data, leading to a $20 million extortion attempt.

“These insiders abused their access to customer support systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers.”