Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-year-old Florida teenager has been arrested for masterminding the hack of high-profile Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Barrack Obama, Wiz Khalifa, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, Floyd Mayweather, XXtentacion, Kim Kardashian, Apple, Uber, and CashApp among others.
These accounts were used to perpetrate unprecedented cryptocurrency scam.
The teenager was arrested in Tampa after an investigation conducted by federal and state investigators, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said in a statement Friday.
“The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to partner with the office throughout the prosecution,” Warren said.
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This BitCon was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that,” Warren added.
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
Warren further stated that his office has filed 30 felony charges against the teen for “scamming people across America”. The charges he’s facing include one count of organised fraud, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count of access to computer or electronic device without authority.
Reports show that Clark is one of three people charged for their alleged roles in the Twitter hack. The two other suspects were identified as 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.
In a statement, Twitter said: “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.”
