A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to greater than a yr in jail for his position in a social media hack that briefly despatched the worth of bitcoin
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Eric Council Jr. of Huntsville pleaded responsible to prices tied to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee’s X account, in keeping with a U.S. Division of Justice press launch.
Posing as a telecom buyer utilizing a fraudulent ID, Council used a SIM-swap method to hijack a telephone quantity tied to the SEC’s account. His co-conspirators then used it to falsely put up that the company had accepted spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a long-awaited regulatory milestone.
Inside minutes, the worth of bitcoin surged by greater than $1,000. It crashed quickly after, shedding greater than $2,000 in worth as soon as the put up was revealed as faux. The SEC did later that month approve the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs.
Authorities say Council was paid in bitcoin for his position. He’ll serve 14 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised launch.
Federal prosecutors known as the assault a calculated try to govern monetary markets. “The deliberate takeover of a federal company’s official communications platform was a calculated legal act meant to deceive the general public and manipulate monetary markets,” stated Performing FBI Assistant Director Darren Cox. “By spreading false info to affect the markets, Council tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system”
