Ride the Lightning

DOJ Announces That Suspects in Celebrity Twitter Hack Have Been Charged

August 4, 2020

As reported by Naked Security, the Department of Justice issued a press release on July 31, simply titled "Three Individuals Charged for Alleged Roles in Twitter Hack." The hack, which took place two weeks ago, was small but got a lot of press. Just 45 Twitter accounts were compromised, but they included accounts belonging to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kim Kardashian.

The tweets were used to promote a bitcoin scam – you pay so many bitcoins to the celebrity and they would pay you back double the amount. Yeah, sure. But because of the account holders' fame, these tweets reached a huge number of people before the deception was noted quickly and the accounts locked down. Some cryptocurrency exchanges also allegedly had their accounts hacked to encourage similarly fraudulent "investments" via a website called cryptoforhealth.com.

As Investigator Gambaryan wryly noted in his affidavit, "No bitcoin was ever returned, much less doubled."

The scam bitcoin account received 400 transfers, netting over $100,000.

From the press release:

"Mason Sheppard, aka "Chaewon," 19, of Bognor Regis, in the United Kingdom, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.

Nima Fazeli, aka "Rolex," 22, of Orlando, Florida, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer."

The third individual charged is a juvenile and was not named in the press release.

This will be an interesting case to follow – I will be sure to post updates.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225|Fairfax, VA 22030
Email: Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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