Josh Hendrickson
The FBI, IRS, US Secret Service, and Florida law enforcement arrested a 17-year old Florida resident this morning, accusing him of ‘masterminding’ the recent Twitter bitcoin hack. Over 130 accounts were compromised, with dozens sending promises out of doubling bitcoin, including high profile names like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Kanye West.
Updated, 7/31: After publish, the Department of Justice published a press release with charges for two additional individuals. Mason Sheppard, aka “Chaewon,” a 19-year-old in the UK is “with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.” And Nima Fazeli, aka “Rolex,” 22, of Orlando, Florida, was charged with “aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer.”
In a press conference, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren described Graham Clark accused Graham Clark of perpetrating the attack and laid out 30 charges, including hacking, organized fraud, identity theft, and communications fraud.
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that,” State Attorney Warren said.
Warren explained that the State Prosecutors are handling the prosecution instead of Federal Prosecutors because “Florida law allows minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases such as this when appropriate.”
When asked if Clark worked alone or had helped, Warren declined to answer citing the ongoing investigation. He described Clark as “not an ordinary 17-year old. This was a highly sophisticated attack, on a magnitude not seen before.” Twitter described the method of attack as a phone spear phishing campain.
via wfla
Below is the press release with all the details:
Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office tapped to prosecute worldwide “Bit-Con” hack of prominent Twitter users
Tampa, FL (July 31, 2020) — Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren has filed 30 felony charges against a Tampa resident for scamming people across America, perpetrating the “Bit-Con” hack of prominent Twitter accounts including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk on July 15, 2020.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a complex nationwide investigation, locating and apprehending the suspect in Hillsborough County.
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that,” State Attorney Warren said.
The investigation revealed Graham Ivan Clark, 17, was the mastermind of the recent hack of Twitter. He was arrested in Tampa early on July 31. Clark’s scheme to defraud stole the identities of prominent people, posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin to accounts associated with Clark, and reaped more than $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day. As a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is difficult to track and recover if stolen in a scam.
“I want to congratulate our federal law enforcement partners—the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the FBI, the IRS, and the Secret Service—as well as the Florida Department of Law enforcement. They worked quickly to investigate and identify the perpetrator of a sophisticated and extensive fraud,” State Attorney Warren said.
“This defendant lives here in Tampa, he committed the crime here, and he’ll be prosecuted here,” Warren added. The Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Clark because Florida law allows minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases such as this when appropriate. The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to partner with the office throughout the prosecution.
The specific charges Clark faces are:
ORGANIZED FRAUD (OVER $50,000) – 1 count
COMMUNICATIONS FRAUD (OVER $300) – 17 counts
FRAUDULENT USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION (OVER $100,000 OR 30 OR MORE VICTIMS) – 1 count
FRAUDULENT USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION – 10 counts
ACCESS COMPUTER OR ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITHOUT AUTHORITY (SCHEME TO DEFRAUD) – 1 count
“Working together, we will hold this defendant accountable,” Warren said. “Scamming people out of their hard-earned money is always wrong. Whether you’re taking advantage of someone in person or on the internet, trying to steal their cash or their cryptocurrency—it’s fraud, it’s illegal, and you won’t get away with it.”
