ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — Officials with the United States Department of Justice say an Athens man was arrested Thursday for a January hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) X account.
Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on October 10 for one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
Court documents show Council conspired with others to “take unauthorized control of the SEC’s X account and, in the name of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, prematurely announced the approval of bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds.”
Following this announcement, the DOJ said the price of bitcoin increased by more than $1,000 per bitcoin.
“Shortly after this unauthorized post, the SEC regained control over its X account and confirmed that the announcement was unauthorized and the result of a security breach. Following this corrective disclosure, the value of BTC decreased by more than $2,000 per bitcoin,” the department said in a news release.
Officials say Council and others were able to gain access to the account through a ‘Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap,’ or getting a cell phone carrier to reassign a phone number from someone else’s SIM to one controlled by them. The involved parties were said to have created a fraudulent identifying document in the victim’s name, which the DOJ says Council used to impersonate them.
The department says Council then took over the victim’s cell phone account and used the number to access the SEC social media, which was linked to it.
“The indictment alleges that Eric Council Jr. unlawfully accessed the SEC’s account on X by using the stolen identity of a person who had access to the account to take over their cellphone number,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Council’s co-conspirators then allegedly used this unauthorized access to the X account to falsely announce that the SEC had approved listing bitcoin ETFs, which caused the price of bitcoin to rise by $1,000 and then fall by $2,000. Council’s indictment underscores the Criminal Division’s commitment to countering cybercrime, especially when it threatens the integrity of financial markets.”
The case is still being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and SEC Office of Inspector General.
If convicted, the DOJ said Council faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.