Man Pleads Guilty to Hacking Official SEC X Account and Falsely Claiming Regulator Had Approved Bitcoin ETFs

An Alabama man has pled responsible to hacking the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee’s (SEC) X account final yr and faces as much as 5 years in jail.

In January 2024, Eric Council Jr., 25, conspired with others to commandeer the SEC’s X account and prematurely announce the approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) within the US, in accordance with the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The faux ETF announcement triggered the value of Bitcoin to extend by greater than $1,000 after which drop by greater than $2,000 after the SEC regained management of its X account and declared the assertion to be unauthorized and the results of a safety breach. The regulator legitimately greenlit spot Bitcoin ETFs quickly after the safety incident.

The DOJ alleges Council carried out the hack by means of an unauthorized SIM swap, which entails fraudulently persuading a cellphone service to reassign one other particular person’s contact quantity to a SIM card managed by a nasty actor.

Council was paid in Bitcoin to make use of the stolen id of an individual who had entry to the SEC’s X account, after which the DOJ alleges that his co-conspirators made the fraudulent submit.

The Alabama man pled responsible to conspiracy to commit aggravated id theft and entry gadget fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced in Could. He faces as much as 5 years in jail.

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