A 25-year-old man living in Alabama was arrested by the FBI in January 2024 on suspicion of being involved in the fraudulent takeover of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) X account.
Eric Council Jr. is accused of posting fake tweets posing as the SEC chairman, causing the value of Bitcoin (BTC) to skyrocket by $1,000.
According to the indictment, Council conspired with others to carry out fraudulent SIM swap attacks.
“As part of this scheme, the co-conspirators shared the personally identifying information (“PLL”) of targeted victims with COUNCIL, created fraudulent identification documents in the victims’ names, and created fraudulent identification documents in the victims’ names. They used their ID cards to impersonate the victim and perform the hijacking. “Accessed the victim’s cell phone account and accessed online social media accounts linked to the victim’s phone line for the purpose of creating fraudulent posts in the name of the SEC Chairman,” the indictment states. are.
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The indictment goes on to detail the actions of Council and its co-conspirators on the dates in question, stating that “on or about January 9, 2024, Council visited an AT&T store in Huntsville, Alabama and asked for identification. I presented it.” CL was an FBI agent who claimed to have obtained a new SIM card associated with CL’s account (the “CL SIM Card”) because his cell phone was broken and he needed a new SIM card.
After obtaining the SIM card, Council allegedly went to an Apple Store to purchase an iPhone, where he used the SIM card to receive a two-factor security reset code associated with his X account.
Since the hack occurred, prosecutors allege, the council searched for “what are the signs that the FBI is targeting you” and how to delete an account on the app Telegram.
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He is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, according to the indictment.
The arrests and indictments were made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI・Published by Geist et al. and SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey.