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FBI brokers on Thursday morning arrested a 25-year-old Alabama man on prices associated to the hack in January of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account, which led to the worth of bitcoin spiking by greater than $1,000, the Department of Justice introduced.
The person, Eric Council Jr., is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud, the DOJ stated. The Athens resident is predicted to seem later Thursday in U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of Alabama.
Council is accused of conspiring with others to hack the SEC’s account and ship a faux tweet within the identify of the company’s chairman, Gary Gensler, on Jan. 9 that stated, “Right this moment the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for itemizing on all registered nationwide securities exchanges.”
Bitcoin’s worth rose by greater than $1,000 after that bogus tweet was posted.
Shortly afterward, the SEC regained management of its social media account, and introduced the tweet was false and on account of a hack.
“Following this corrective disclosure, the worth of BTC decreased by greater than $2,000 per bitcoin,” the DOJ famous.
The hack occurred at a time when the SEC was contemplating whether or not to approve on the market exchange-traded funds that held that cryptocurrency.
A day after the hack, the SEC accepted rule changes that allowed the creation of bitcoin ETFs in the USA.
The DOJ stated that Council is accused of utilizing a so-called SIM swap scheme to assist pull off the hack. SIM swaps contain a fraudster duping a mobile service supplier into given them management of a sufferer’s telephone.
“The indictment alleges that Eric Council, Jr. unlawfully accessed the SEC’s account on X by utilizing the stolen identification of an individual who had entry to the account to take over their cellphone quantity,” stated Principal Deputy Assistant Legal professional Common Nicole Argentieri in a press release.
His “co-conspirators then allegedly used this unauthorized entry to the X account to falsely announce that the SEC had accepted itemizing Bitcoin ETFs,” Argentieri stated.
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