Report Federal Prosecutors Set to Offer Plea Agreement to Individual Accused of Breaching SECs X Account in January
Federal prosecutors are said to be preparing to offer a plea deal to the individual accused of hacking the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) social media platform, known as X. The defendant, Eric Council Jr., an Alabama native aged 25, allegedly conspired with others to gain unauthorized control of the SEC’s X account and prematurely announced the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US. During a recent hearing, Council pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and access device fraud. However, federal prosecutors informed the judge that they intended to propose a plea deal to Council, potentially involving his cooperation in identifying his alleged co-conspirators. The fraudulent announcement of the ETFs in January led to a significant increase in the price of Bitcoin, followed by a sharp decline after the SEC regained control of its X account and revealed the unauthorized nature of the statement. The DOJ claims that Council executed the hack by engaging in an unauthorized SIM swap, which involves convincing a cellphone carrier to transfer another person’s contact number to a SIM card controlled by the perpetrator. Council is alleged to have used the stolen identity of an individual with access to the SEC’s X account. X criticized the regulator for not implementing multi-factor authentication for its profile, despite SEC Chair Gary Gensler publicly encouraging investors to secure their financial accounts with this feature.
