Alabama resident Eric Council, Jr. was arrested on October 17 for allegedly being the infamous hacker behind the January 2024 SEC SIM swap attack regarding spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Eric Council Jr. Arrested For SEC SIM Swap Attack
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s press release, the 25-year-old Council was arrested in his hometown of Athens, Alabama, on charges of conspiracy to commit identity theft and access device fraud for the January 9 hack that manipulated the price of Bitcoin.
DDC crypto indictment: Eric Council arrested this morning, in Alabama for Jan 2024 hack of SEC's X account & posted a fake message from SEC Chair Gensler that caused the value of bitcoin (BTC) to spike by $1,000… pic.twitter.com/cZ5JJNyrHd
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 17, 2024
According to the indictment, Council and his anonymous co-conspirators were able to obtain “personal identifying information and an identification card template containing a victim’s name and photo,” which they then used to generate a fake ID via his identification printer.
Using the newly developed fraudulent ID, Council obtained a SIM card at a store in Huntsville, Alabama, where he ultimately purchased a new iPhone in cash.
Spot Bitcoin ETF X Post Causes Chaos
From there, Council was able to log in to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) official X account, where his co-conspirators posted a fraudulent announcement as the federal agency’s chairman, Gary Gensler, stating that spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved.
“Immediately after the tweet, the price of BTC increased by more than $1,000 per bitcoin,” the press release stated.
Once the SEC regained control of its account and notified the public of the breach, the value of Bitcoin dropped by over $2,000 per coin.
The purported scam artist reportedly received an undisclosed sum of Bitcoin for executing the successful SIM swap before driving to Birmingham, Alabama, to return the newly purchased iPhone for cash.
Following the attack, Council (who also went by aliases, including Ronin, Easymummy, and AGiantSchnauzer) conducted several potentially incriminating internet searches, such as “How can I know for sure if I’m being investigated by the FBI?” “SECGOV hack,” and “telegram sim swap.”
“These SIM swapping schemes, where fraudsters trick service providers into giving them control of unsuspecting victims’ phones, can result in devastating financial losses to victims and leaks of sensitive personal and private information,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “Here, the conspirators allegedly used their illegal access to a phone to manipulate financial markets. Through indictments like this, we will hold accountable those who commit these serious crimes.”
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