Federal Prosecutors to Propose Plea Deal to Man Who Allegedly Hacked SEC Account X in January: Report

Federal prosecutors reportedly plan to propose a plea deal to the man who allegedly hacked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) social media platform Account X earlier this year.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says Alabama native Eric Council Jr., 25, allegedly conspired with others to take unauthorized control of the SEC’s X account and prematurely announced the approval of Bitcoin spot (btc) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.

At a hearing Friday, he pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, but federal prosecutors also told the judge they planned to offer a plea deal to the Council, which could involve cooperation against his accomplices. anonymous men who were allegedly the masterminds behind the scenes, Bloomberg information.

The fake ETF announcement, published in January, caused the price of Bitcoin to rise by more than $1,000 and then fall by more than $2,000 after the SEC regained control of its X account and declared that the statement was unauthorized and was the result of a security breach. . The regulator rightfully gave the green light to Bitcoin ETFs shortly after the security incident.

The Justice Department alleges that the Council carried out the hack through an unauthorized SIM swap, which involves fraudulently persuading a cellular carrier to reassign another person’s contact number to a SIM card controlled by a bad actor The Alabama man allegedly used the stolen identity of a person who had access to the SEC’s X account.

X said after the hack that the regulator failed to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for his profile, despite SEC Chairman Gary Gensler publicly motivated Last year, investors secured their financial accounts with that same feature.

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