Federal prosecutors are currently contemplating a plea deal for Eric Council Jr., who was recently apprehended for hacking into the X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A recent report from Bloomberg sheds light on the most recent developments regarding the SEC X account.
At a recent hearing on October 25, U.S. attorney Kevin Rosenberg informed U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson about the potential plea deal. Although the prosecution is moving forward with the offer, there is uncertainty about its acceptance.
Eric Council, aged 25, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigations the prior week. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia stated that the hacker’s actions led to a significant spike of $1,000 in the Bitcoin price following the dissemination of a fabricated message on the SEC’s X account.
The charges against Council include device fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft. Allegedly, the suspect received payment in BTC from undisclosed sources for executing a successful SIM swap attack.
This incident occurred amidst the anticipation within the crypto industry for the SEC’s approval of the initial spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds for the U.S. market, generating a period of heightened positive sentiment.
Following the recovery of the SEC’s account and the confirmation of the fake announcement resulting from a SIM swap attack, cryptocurrency prices plummeted abruptly. The market sentiment shifted dramatically, becoming pessimistic for BTC as its value dropped by over $2,000 in mere minutes.
Despite the initial setback, the SEC eventually approved the spot BTC ETFs, triggering a surge in the Bitcoin price to reach its peak at $73k.
