Alabama Man Sentenced to 14 Months in Connection with Securities and Exchange Commission X Hack that Spiked Bitcoin Prices

The Department of Justice announced that Eric Council Jr. of Huntsville, Alabama was sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years supervised release for conspiring to conduct a SIM swap that enabled the unauthorized takeover of the SEC’s official X account, from which co-conspirators falsely announced approval of Bitcoin ETFs, briefly spiking BTC’s price before a correction. The scheme used a fraudulent ID with stolen PII to impersonate a victim and seize their phone number, facilitating access to the SEC account; Council was paid in BTC. The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and the SEC OIG, with prosecution by DOJ divisions, and the announcement highlights SIM swapping risks and prevention resources (ic3.gov).