In January, the price of bitcoin saw a temporary surge after a fake Securities and Exchange Commision post online. Now, an Alabama man has been arrested for his role in that post. The AP reports that Athens resident 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. was taken into custody on Thursday, for allegedly helping the core group of hackers to infiltrate the SEC account on X so they could put up a false statement about the supposed greenlighting of bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. "The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges," read the phony Jan. 9 post, which caused the price of bitcoin to spike more than $1,000, per a Justice Department release.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler soon after noted, "The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products." The agency did end up approving the bitcoin ETFs, but not until the day after the hackers' post. The release notes that Council allegedly used a "SIM swap" to help the hackers carry out their plan, which the DOJ says involved him using a fake ID at a Huntsville cellphone provider store to pretend he had access to the SEC's X account. Council allegedly bought a new iPhone, in cash, then asked the store worker to provide him with a SIM card to the legitimate owner's phone. Authorities say he subsequently used that SIM card in his new iPhone to hijack the real account holder's info so he could retrieve the access codes to the SEC Twitter account.
Council is said to have then passed those codes onto his hacker associates, and they in turn broke into the SEC account and created the fake post. Bitcoin's price fell $2,000 after the hackers' post was revealed to be fiction. The BBC notes that Council was apparently self-aware enough to realize he could be in trouble: After returning the iPhone he'd purchased, Council made internet searches, including "How can I know for sure if I am being investigated by the FBI" and "What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI even if you have not been contacted by them," per the DOJ. Council is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. He could see up to five years behind bars if convicted. (More hackers stories.)