Eric Council Jr. was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment for his function within the Jan. 9, 2024, hack of the U.S. Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC’s) X account. The convicted, together with co-conspirators, posted false information of the SEC approving the primary Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund within the U.S.
In a press launch on Might 16, 2025, the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) acknowledged that Council Jr. may even be subjected to 3 years of supervised launch, a type of parole.
The 26-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, had pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit aggravated id theft and entry gadget fraud in February. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) brokers in October final yr.
What Council Jr. did
On Aug. 29, 2023, the District of Columbia Court docket of Appeals in Washington dominated that the SEC was unsuitable to reject Grayscale’s spot BTC ETF utility with out correct trigger. The courtroom’s choice meant that the SEC would assessment Grayscale’s utility, which it had rejected a number of instances.
The courtroom win raised optimism, and the crypto business was extremely anticipating the SEC to approve the primary spot Bitcoin ETF any day. Council Jr. and his accomplices took benefit of the market sentiment and introduced a pretend approval from the SEC’s real X account.
Court docket paperwork point out that Council Jr. conspired to hack the SEC’s X official account and publish pretend information of spot BTC ETF approval to control the value of BTC. His function was to hold out a Subscriber Id Module (SIM) swap, the place a nasty actor convinces the cell provider to port a sufferer’s cellphone quantity to a SIM card managed by them.
In response to the DOJ, Council Jr. used an ID card printer to supply pretend IDs of victims, whose private knowledge was provided to him by co-conspirators. He then used the pretend IDs to achieve entry to the sufferer’s quantity to entry the SEC’s X account and publish the pretend information. Council Jr. acquired cost in BTC for his function within the SEC’s X account hack.
The harm Council Jr. contributed to
Instantly after the posting of the pretend information, the value of every BTC elevated by greater than $1,000. However after the SEC chair, Gary Gensler, acknowledged the hack and dismissed the message of hackers as pretend, the BTC value crashed by over $2,000 per BTC, CryptoSlate knowledge reveals.
BTC value rose to $48,000 after the pretend information was posted, however crashed to $45,000 after Gensler’s refutation. Round $50 billion was wiped off Bitcoin’s market capitalization within the 24 hours following the posting of the pretend information. The worth fluctuation additionally triggered a complete of $220 million in liquidations.
FBI Felony Investigative Division Appearing Assistant Director Darren Cox known as hack “a calculated prison act meant to deceive the general public and manipulate monetary markets.” He added:
“By spreading false data to affect the markets, Council [Jr.] tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system.”
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