An Alabama man was arrested Thursday for his alleged role in the January hack of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission social media account, which sent the price of bitcoin soaring, the Justice Department said.
Eric Counsell Jr., 25, of Athens, is accused of helping break into the SEC’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, allowing hackers to prematurely announce the approval of long-awaited exchange-traded funds.
The price of Bitcoin briefly rose more than $1,000 after the post claimed that “SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs to list on all registered national securities exchanges.”
But shortly after the initial post appeared, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on his personal account that the SEC’s account had been hacked. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of Bitcoin exchange-traded products,” Gensler wrote, calling the post unauthorized without providing further explanation.
Authorities say the Board carried out what’s known as a “SIM swap,” using a fake ID to impersonate a person with access to the SEC’s X account and convincing a cell phone store to give it a SIM card linked to that person’s phone. The Justice Department says the board was able to seize the person’s cell phone number and obtain access codes to X’s SEC account, which he shared with others who broke into the account and sent mail.
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Prosecutors say that after Council returned the iPhone he used to swap the SIM card, their online searches included: “What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI even if they have not contacted you?”
An email seeking comment was sent Thursday to an attorney for the council, which is charged in federal court in Washington with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
Bitcoin’s price swung from around $46,730 to just under $48,000 after the unauthorized post appeared on January 9, then fell to around $45,200 after the SEC’s denial. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved the first exchange-traded funds containing bitcoin the next day.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
