The court win raised optimism, and the crypto industry was highly anticipating the SEC to approve the first spot Bitcoin ETF any day. Council Jr. and his accomplices took advantage of the market sentiment and announced a fake approval from the SEC’s genuine X account.
Court documents indicate that Council Jr. conspired to hack the SEC’s X official account and post fake news of spot BTC ETF approval to manipulate the price of BTC. His role was to carry out a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap, where a bad actor convinces the mobile carrier to port a victim’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by them.
According to the DOJ, Council Jr. used an ID card printer to produce fake IDs of victims, whose personal data was supplied to him by co-conspirators. He then used the fake IDs to gain access to the victim’s number to access the SEC’s X account and post the fake news. Council Jr. received payment in BTC for his role in the SEC’s X account hack.
FBI Criminal Investigative Division Acting Assistant Director Darren Cox called hack “a calculated criminal act meant to deceive the public and manipulate financial markets.” He added:
“By spreading false information to influence the markets, Council [Jr.] attempted to erode public trust and exploit the financial system.”
