Barely two weeks after the Twitter accounts of influential persons were compromised, authorities finally have their first set of suspects.
Surprisingly, it includes a 17-year old Tampa resident, alleged to be the “mastermind” of the incident.
According to a News Channel 8 report regarding the latest development, 17-year-old Graham Clark booked into jail on Friday after Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against the teen for “scamming people across America.”
Graham Clark, as per the allegations, “stole the identities of prominent people” and “posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin,” a scheme that gathered over $100,000 in a single day.
Although Twitter subsequently recovered and handed back account access to account owners, the damage had already been done since bitcoin transfers made by unsuspecting victims are irreversible. The incident also painted a bad image for the cryptocurrency which is on the journey towards mass adoption.
Elon Musk, Changpeng Zhao of Binance Exchange, Barrack Obama, Coindesk, Joe Biden, Gemini, and KuCOIN are just a few influential persons and businesses that temporarily locked out of their account during the July 15 incident.
The suspect was hunted down in Hillsborough County after a “complex, nationwide investigation” effort of the FBI, and the U.S Department of Justice. He will now be prosecuted in his “backyard.”
State Attorney Andrew Warren in a statement about the now historic Twitter takeover wrote:
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans […], including Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that.”
Meanwhile, 17-year old Graham Clark is just one of the three people charged for their direct involvement in the Twitter hack. Data from the U.S Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California reportedly shows that there are two other suspects, namely 22-year-old Nima Fazeli, a.k.a. “Rolex,” of Orlando and 19-year-old Mason Sheppard, a.k.a. “Chaewon,” of the United Kingdom.
Written By W. Michael, Global News Correspondent, CNIR Staff
