Graham Ivan Clark, the 17 year old alleged “mastermind” behind last month’s massive Twitter hack, was arrested in Florida over the weekend. The two alleged accomplices have also been arrested.
Hillsborough State Attorney, Andrew Warren, filed 30 felony charges against Clark for scamming people in connection with the Twitter hack on 15 July 2020. The charges include, organised fraud, communications fraud, fraudulent use of personal information, identity theft, and hacking.
Twitter said that around 130 accounts were targeted by the attackers. The attackers were, however, only able to gain control and send tweets from a small number of these accounts.
The teen is claimed to have managed to gain access to and tweeted on behalf of a number of high profile Twitter users accounts, promoting a cryptocurrency scam. The affected accounts included Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama. The hack resulted in the teen reaping over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin within a matter of hours.
State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against Graham Ivan Clark, 17, of Tampa, for scamming Americans, perpetrating the “Bit-Con” hack of @BillGates , @BarackObama , & @elonmusk Twitter accts. TY to our federal law enforcement partners. https://t.co/exyg4TCOw4 pic.twitter.com/dbdzLfjcNu
— State Attorney 13th (@sao13th) July 31, 2020
The two other suspects were identified as 22 year old Nima Fazeli, of Florida and 19 year old Mason Sheppard, of the United Kingdom. Fazeli does have a short rap sheet, aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer, he is expected to face less time than Clark and Sheppard.
Shepard has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.
It is believed that both Sheppard and Fazeli used their real driver’s licence to verify their identity with various exchanges, where their accounts were found to have sent and received the Bitcoin that was acquired through scams. This is what ultimately lead authorities to their identities.
Twitter released a statement shortly after the arrest, commending law enforcement services for their work.
https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1289267856333402112
Feature image by Robinraj Premchand from Pixabay
