A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to greater than a 12 months in jail for his position in a social media hack that briefly despatched the value 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 Change Fee’s X account, in accordance with a U.S. Division of Justice press launch.
Posing as a telecom buyer utilizing a fraudulent ID, Council used a SIM-swap approach to hijack a cellphone quantity tied to the SEC’s account. His co-conspirators then used it to falsely put up that the company had authorized spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a long-awaited regulatory milestone.
Inside minutes, the value of bitcoin surged by greater than $1,000. It crashed quickly after, dropping greater than $2,000 in worth as soon as the put up was revealed as pretend. 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 referred to 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 data to affect the markets, Council tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system”
