Three People Charged In Massive Bitcoin Twitter Hack That Targeted Notable Users Like Joe Biden & More
On Friday, three people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the massive Twitter hack that targeted prominent celebrities and political figures like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Kanye West to initiate a widespread Bitcoin scam, according to a new report from CNN.
Earlier this month, The Inquisitr reported that Twitter had taken action against the alleged Bitcoin scammers by temporarily disabling all verified accounts, preventing the hackers from tweeting anything.
The initial scam tweets made it seem as if the famous individual was feeling “generous” and would double the amount of cryptocurrency sent to them if their followers would submit Bitcoin to their digital wallet.
The three people accused include 22-year-old Orlando, Florida, resident Nima Fazeli, 19-year-old Mason Sheppard from the United Kingdom, and a minor, 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark from Tampa.
Andrew Warren, the state attorney for Hillsborough, Florida, said he would be handling the prosecution for the case in Florida because it will be easier to charge Clark as an adult than as a minor for a high-profile case such as this one.
“The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to partner with the office throughout the prosecution,” Warren stated.
CNN‘s information pertaining to the accused comes from a statement made by United States Attorney David Anderson.
“There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence. Today’s charging announcement demonstrates that the elation of nefarious hacking into a secure environment for fun or profit will be short-lived.”
Out of the three people accused, the publication noted that only two had been taken into custody so far.
Sanjay Virmani, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge from FBI’s San Francisco division, said that the initial arrests were only “the first step for law enforcement.”
The investigation appears to be continuing, as Virmani noted that the agency would “continue to identify anyone else who may have been involved in these crimes.”
Twitter has also responded to the arrests and law enforcement’s work in handling the investigation overall.
In a statement released on Friday afternoon, the Twitter Communications team said they were grateful to the “swift actions” of the FBI and would “continue to cooperate as the case progresses.”
They also promised to keep providing updates to social media users and remain as “transparent” as possible.
Additionally, the Twitter Support account provided an update yesterday via its blog.
We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses. For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly.
For the latest, see here ? https://t.co/kHty8TXaly
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 31, 2020
