Eric Council Jr., a 26-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, has been sentenced to over a year in prison for his involvement in a social media hacking incident that briefly propelled the price of bitcoin upwards. Council pleaded guilty to charges related to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's social media account, as stated in a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice.
By posing as a telecom customer and utilizing a fraudulent ID, Council employed a SIM-swap technique to hijack a phone number associated with the SEC's account. His accomplices then used this hijacked account to falsely announce that the agency had approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, a regulatory milestone that had been highly anticipated. The price of bitcoin surged by over $1,000 within minutes, only to crash shortly after and lose more than $2,000 in value once the post was exposed as fraudulent.
Later that month, the SEC did approve the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs. According to authorities, Council received payment in bitcoin for his role in the hack. He will serve a 14-month prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release.
Federal prosecutors characterized the attack as a deliberate attempt to manipulate financial markets. "The intentional takeover of a federal agency's official communication platform was a calculated criminal act aimed at deceiving the public and manipulating financial markets," said Acting FBI Assistant Director Darren Cox. "By disseminating false information to influence the markets, Council attempted to undermine public trust and exploit the financial system."