An Icelandic hacker who was once an ally of Julian Assange pled guilty Wednesday to charges that he embezzled 30 million Icelandic crowns ($240K USD) from Wikileaks.

Sigurdur Thordar­s­son's courtroom plea is the latest twist in the saga of Wikileaks, which released thousands of secret U.S. embassy cables in 2010 and 2011, deeply embarrassing Washington.

Known as 'Siggi the Hacker', Thordar­s­son has previously said that he turned an informant for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2011, a year before Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault accusations that he has denied.

In the run up to his Iceland trial, Thordar­s­son rejected charges that he stole the proceeds of the sales of Wikileaks-branded items, and his U-turn on Wednesday was a surprise.