In short
- An Alabama man who helped SIM to exchange a telephone that was bound to the X’s X account of the SEC, received a 14-month prison sentence.
- After he had access to the account, his fellow samplers placed a fake Bitcoin ETF goods inspection post, which led to the price of an increase in BTC.
- Eric Council Jr. From Athens, Alabama, previously argued guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft.
An Alabama-Man who helped last year in hacking the X account of the Securities and Exchange Commission to wrongly announce the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, received a 14-month prison sentence on Friday.
Eric Council Jr. Van Athens, Alabama earlier pleading guilty conspiracy to commit heavy identity theft for his role in the SIM -wap attack of January 2024.
Council, which also goes ‘Ronin’ and ‘Agiantschnauzer’, used a portable ID card printer to make a fake ID, which was then used to protect a replacement SIM card for the telephone number that is linked to the @secgov account on X (formerly Twitter).
With the help of the replacement SIM, the Council was able to purchase the reset access codes for the X-Account of the Regulator and eventually to share it with fellow samplers who wrongly posted about the approval of the Bitcoin ETFs, which manipulated the price of BTC in the process.
In June 2024, based on a house search order, the FBI found a laptop where the council lived on the internet for sentences such as: “How do I know for sure if I am being investigated by the FBI?” And “What are some signs that the FBI is behind you?”
He was finally arrested In October last year.
The fake approval tweets Led to a short rise in Bitcoin’s price, but was withdrawn even steeper when the then SEC chairman Gary Genler confirmed that the regulator’s account had been hacked.
A day after the incident, on January 10, the SEC has officially announced the Bitcoin ETFsso that the products are traded in the United States. The price of Bitcoin has since more than doubled and now acts at $ 103,876.
In addition to the prison sentence of the council, he is instructed to forfeit $ 50,000 and has three years of accompanied release, with a condition that he cannot “make access to the dark web or further identity fraud”.
“These earth schedules threaten the health and integrity of our market system,” said American lawyer Jeanine Pirro in a statement. “SIM -swap regulations threaten the financial security of average citizens, financial institutions and government agencies. Do not fool yourself by thinking that you cannot be caught. You are caught, prosecuted and pay the price for the damage you create actions.”
Published by Andrew Hayward
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