Federal prosecutors are planning to offer a plea deal to Eric Council Jr., an Alabama man accused of involvement in a high-profile hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s official X account, formerly known as Twitter.
This incident was a form of social engineering where a fake message was posted concerning the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and temporarily influenced the cryptocurrency market. Council, who was also charged but entered a not guilty plea, has other charges including conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
US SEC Twitter Hack Suspect Set To Receive Plea Deal
During a hearing in Washington federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Rosenberg announced that prosecutors plan on continuing the offer of a plea deal to Council.
”We will extend a plea,” Rosenberg told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson saying, “I have no idea if it will be accepted or not.” Should the Council agree to the plea deal, Council’s assistance might help federal authorities to identify and prosecute other persons allegedly engaged in the hacking conspiracy.
The prosecution has also stated that Council was not operating on his own and that he was instructed by other people who had a considerable part in organizing and carrying out the attack. These co-conspirators, it is alleged, targeted the victim, an employee of the US SEC, and worked with Council to use a technique known as SIM swapping to penetrate the security measures put in place to protect the SEC’s social media account.
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