TechFlow news, May 17 — According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, a 26-year-old man from Alabama, Eric Council Jr., has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for participating in the hacking of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) official X account and posting false information.
Court documents show that in January 2024, Council illegally accessed the SEC's official X account using SIM card swapping techniques and assisted his accomplices in publishing a fake announcement about the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF under the name of the then-SEC chairperson. In addition to his prison sentence, the court ordered Council to forfeit $50,000 in illicit proceeds. Upon release, he will be subject to three years of supervised release, during which he is prohibited from using computers to access the dark web or engaging in identity fraud activities.
