The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged three people for orchestrating a SIM-swapping attack, leading to the theft of over $400 million from a company, suspected to be the collapsed FTX exchange.
The accused are Robert Powell, Emily Hernandez, and Carter Rohn. They allegedly conducted SIM-swapping scams targeting multiple victims from March 2021 through April 2023.
The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, doesn’t exactly name FTX exchange , but sources cited by Bloomberg indicate that the exchange is referred to as Victim Company-1 in the filing.
Furthermore, the 3 individuals are charged of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and identity theft. In addition, the indictment mentions that a SIM swap attack involves fraudulently convincing a carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber to a SIM card controlled by a criminal actor.
According to the court filing, the fraudsters accessed an FTX employee’s AT&T account using deceptive identities.
They reportedly unlocked FTX’s online accounts, leading to the alleged theft of $400 million in crypto.
Previously in November 2022, FTX had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid allegations of executives profiteering from client funds.
The founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried or SBF, faced accusations of defrauding FTX investors and was found guilty in 2023, now facing years in prison.
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