The Twitter account of Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya was apparently hacked Friday morning after messages were posted on his page by individuals who claimed to be part of the same group that broke into the accounts of prominent opposition politicians last week.
A message on Mr. Mallya’s Twitter said that his account had been hacked. Messages were briefly posted on his page inviting readers to follow a link to download some of his personal documents. A spokesperson for Mr. Mallya didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
“Hello We are back with – Vijay mallya’s assets at several banks All known passwords of Mr. Mallya,” the posters, who used the name Legion Group, wrote in a tweet posted at around 11 a.m. India time.
In a series of rapid follow up tweets, they uploaded screenshots of files they said detailed assets owned by him including a French castle, a fleet of luxury Maybach cars and investments in startup companies.
Mr. Mallya, a former billionaire who inherited a beer and liquor businesses and was once feted as India’s “King of Good Times,” is currently living in the U.K., from where the Indian government is seeking to extradite him to face a raft of allegations surrounding the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines, which lost its license to fly in 2012. Since then, creditors to the collapsed airline have been seeking to claw back over $1 billion in losses by auctioning assets owned by Mr. Mallya. Mr. Mallya has denied any wrongdoing.
The alleged hackers also uploaded a zipped cache of documents that they said contained the bank accounts, assets, passports, and offshore investments of Mr. Mallya.
Some of the details posted in other tweets, including the location of a London property and a list of Mr. Mallya’s email addresses, appeared to match with information previously published about the entrepreneur.
Seven hours earlier, Mr. Mallya posted a tweet saying: “Outfit called Legion has hacked my e-mail accounts and are blackmailing me !! What a joke.”
Legion hackers later replied through Mr. Mallya’s verified Twitter account: “We did not blackmail Mallya, any and all rumours are assumptions and fake! He is creating propaganda.”
Last week’s hack of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi’s account, and that of his party, also claimed by Legion Group, made headlines after a litany of expletive laden insults against both were posted online. “Congress can kiss our ass,” said one of the milder posts.
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