Athens man arrested for hacking into Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account in January

ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — U.S. Department of Justice officials said an Athens man was arrested Thursday in connection with a January hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) X account.

Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, was indicted by a District of Columbia federal grand jury on Oct. 10 on one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and device fraud access.

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Court documents show that the Board conspired with others to “gain unauthorized control of the SEC’s X account and, on behalf of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, prematurely announced the approval of exchange-traded funds Bitcoin.”

Following the announcement, the DOJ said the price of bitcoin increased by more than $1,000 per bitcoin.

“Shortly after this unauthorized posting, the SEC regained control of his X account and confirmed that the posting was unauthorized and the result of a security breach. As a result of this corrective disclosure, the value of BTC decreased by more than $2,000 per bitcoin,” the department said in a press release.

Officials say Council and others were able to access the account through a “subscriber identity module (SIM) swap” or by asking a mobile carrier to reassign a phone number from the SIM card from someone else to a number controlled by them. The parties involved allegedly created a fraudulent identification document in the victim’s name, which the DOJ claims the Council used to impersonate them.

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The department claims the Council then took over the victim’s cell phone account and used the number to access SEC social media, which was linked to it.

“The indictment alleges that Eric Council Jr. illegally accessed the SEC account on X by using the stolen identity of a person who had access to the account to take over his cell phone number,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, Deputy Director of the Assistant Attorney General. of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. “The Council co-conspirators then allegedly used this unauthorized access to account $2,000. The Council’s indictment underscores the Criminal Division’s commitment to combating cybercrime, particularly when it threatens the integrity of financial markets.”

The matter remains under investigation by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the SEC’s Office of Inspector General.

If convicted, the DOJ said Council faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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