Three people have been indicted in a $400 million heist allegedly linked to failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. ArsTechnica reports that a grand jury indicted them on two counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and device fraud over the past two years.
According to prosecutors, Americans Robert Powell, Carter Rohn and Emily Hernandez carried out SIM swap attacks between March 2021 and April 2023.
The court document cited by Arstecnica, however, does not mention FTX or its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, by name. Instead, he used the moniker Victim Company-1. A subsequent Bloomberg report today, citing unnamed sources, confirmed that victim company-1 was indeed FTX.
“Around November 11, 2022, Hernandez used a fake ID along with FTX employee details to convince AT&T to transfer his cellphone account to another SIM card,” Bloomberg said. “The alleged leader of the group, Powell – who uses the online monikers ‘R$' and ElSwapo1 – then used different authentication codes to access FTX's crypto wallets.”
Several targets are listed in the lawsuit, but one entry in particular is believed by many to be an attack aimed at the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2022.
“On or about November 11, 2022, and through November 12, 2022, co-conspirators transferred more than $400 million in virtual currency from virtual currency wallets of Victim Company-1 to virtual currency wallets controlled by the co-conspirators,” prosecutors said.
FTX US General Counsel Ryne Miller said in a now-deleted tweet: “Investigating anomalies in wallet activity related to integration of FTX balances.”
More than $650 million was stolen in 24 hours, according to blockchain researcher ZackXBT.
SIM jacking or SIM swapping is a type of cyber attack that involves transferring one's phone number to another SIM card by talking to a carrier's customer support staff. Hackers can then use the reassigned SIMs to bypass two-factor authentication and access victims' online accounts, such as bank accounts, social media accounts, and email accounts.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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