The man who hijacked the official X account of the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to post a phony announcement of the premature greenlighting of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been taken into custody. That false announcement immediately pushed up the price of Bitcoin.
Hacker Behind Fake Bitcoin ETF Approval Arrested
Eric Council, a 25-year-old resident of Athens, Alabama, was arrested on Thursday and charged with “conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.
The suspect allegedly used a “SIM swapping” technique to take over a phone number and eventually gained unauthorized access to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account.
According to the FBI, Council worked with others to take control of the account. He allegedly utilized stolen personal details from an SEC employee to create a fake ID. In a bid to throw law enforcement off his trail, Council drove to Huntsville, Alabama, to use the fake ID to acquire a new SIM card tied to the unsuspecting victim’s mobile account.
Afterward, the culprit bought a new iPhone using cash and used it to access the SEC’s Twitter account, prosecutors revealed. Council was paid in Bitcoin (BTC) for staging the account takeover, per the statement.
SEC Hack Pumped BTC Price
On Jan. 9, a post on SEC’s X said, “Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges,” causing the price of Bitcoin to spike by over $1,000.
The top crypto then swiftly plummeted by $2,000 after the SEC regained control of its account, deleted the post, and confirmed that nefarious actors had compromised it.
Funny enough, Council used his personal computer to perform internet searches that included “How can I know for sure if I am being investigated by the FBI”, and “What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or FBI even if you have not been contacted by them.”
“I don’t know if the SIM swapper is more low IQ for these internet searches or the SEC for not using 2FA”, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said on X after the arrest announcement.
If found guilty, Council faces up to 15 years behind bars for identity theft alone and three years in prison for impersonating a federal agency.
“Today’s arrest demonstrates our commitment to holding bad actors accountable for undermining the integrity of the financial markets,” SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey stated in an official statement.
The SEC did end up approving the highly-awaited spot Bitcoin ETFs the next day. These products have since drawn in billions of dollars in investor money.