Osiebo and Evans still face criminal charges, unresolved
Assessment
DOJ's own 17 April 2026 press release on Buchanan's guilty plea states that Elbadawy, Osiebo and Evans "still face criminal charges in this case." That was untrue of Osiebo by the time it was published: docket records show he pleaded guilty to Counts One and Three under seal on 10 June 2025, ten months earlier, with sentencing originally set for December 2025. He was sentenced to 45 months on 14 August 2026. Evans was independently sentenced to 24 months on 27 August 2026. Both resolutions were fully public on the docket well before this week's coverage repeated the "still faces charges" framing.
Where this claim appeared
US Attorney's Office, Central District of California (Department of Justice) · 2026-04-17
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/british-national-pleads-guilty-hacking-companies-and-stealing-least-8-million-virtualWhat “False” means
Contradicted by primary sources. Reserved for claims checked directly against the authoritative record — an advisory that does not exist, a catalogue that does not list the entry, a directive that says something other than what is reported.
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Assessed in
Scattered Spider: what the Elbadawy docket actually shows, against what got reported this weekThink this assessment is wrong? Report an error.