Eric Council Jr. was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment for his function within the Jan. 9, 2024, hack of the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee’s (SEC’s) X account. The convicted, together with co-conspirators, posted false information of the SEC approving the primary Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund within the U.S.
In a press launch on Might 16, 2025, the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) said that Council Jr. may also be subjected to 3 years of supervised launch, a type of parole.
The 26-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, had pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud in February. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) brokers in October final yr.
What Council Jr. did
On Aug. 29, 2023, the District of Columbia Courtroom of Appeals in Washington dominated that the SEC was fallacious to reject Grayscale’s spot BTC ETF utility with out correct trigger. The court docket’s choice meant that the SEC would overview Grayscale’s utility, which it had rejected a number of occasions.
The court docket win raised optimism, and the crypto trade was extremely anticipating the SEC to approve the primary spot Bitcoin ETF any day. Council Jr. and his accomplices took benefit of the market sentiment and introduced a pretend approval from the SEC’s real X account.
Courtroom paperwork point out that Council Jr. conspired to hack the SEC’s X official account and submit pretend information of spot BTC ETF approval to govern the value of BTC. His function was to hold out a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) swap, the place a foul actor convinces the cell provider to port a sufferer’s telephone quantity to a SIM card managed by them.
In response to the DOJ, Council Jr. used an ID card printer to supply pretend IDs of victims, whose private knowledge was equipped to him by co-conspirators. He then used the pretend IDs to achieve entry to the sufferer’s quantity to entry the SEC’s X account and submit the pretend information. Council Jr. acquired fee in BTC for his function within the SEC’s X account hack.
The harm Council Jr. contributed to
Instantly after the posting of the pretend information, the value of every BTC elevated by greater than $1,000. However after the SEC chair, Gary Gensler, acknowledged the hack and dismissed the message of hackers as pretend, the BTC worth crashed by over $2,000 per BTC, CryptoSlate knowledge reveals.
BTC worth rose to $48,000 after the pretend information was posted, however crashed to $45,000 after Gensler’s refutation. Round $50 billion was wiped off Bitcoin’s market capitalization within the 24 hours following the posting of the pretend information. The value fluctuation additionally prompted a complete of $220 million in liquidations.
FBI Felony Investigative Division Performing Assistant Director Darren Cox referred to as hack “a calculated prison act meant to deceive the general public and manipulate monetary markets.” He added:
“By spreading false data to affect the markets, Council [Jr.] tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system.”
