It looks like the perpetrators behind the infamous 2022 FTX hack have finally been found.
The US Department of Justice has charged three people with, among other things, fraud and identity theft through “SIM swapping”.
According to several sources, this case is related to the FTX hack.
The FTX crash and hack in November 2022
In November 2022, things were not going well for FTX, once one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange ran into major trouble due to the 2022 bear market. Several major companies in the crypto sector collapsed and FTX was dragged along.
Especially when it emerged that the company was heavily in debt because the exchange’s investment arm, Alameda Research, was secretly manipulating customer funds. Subsequently, the stock exchange was no longer able to repay its billions in debt.
When the FTX stock market was on the verge of collapse, it was also hacked. On November 11, 2022, $400 million was stolen from the exchange. This happened literally hours after FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Trio stole $400 million worth of cryptocurrencies from FTX
Almost 15 months after the incident, we are finally getting information about who is behind this hack. At least according to Bloomberg, because FTX is not explicitly mentioned in the indictment itself.
Bloomberg says one of the suspects’ victims is FTX. The research agency Elliptic also assumes that it is FTX.
The hack initially appeared to be the work of insiders, but after extensive investigation, it appears that three were responsible for a coordinated outside effort.
Suspects Robert Powell, Emily Hernandez and Carter Rohn carried out a series of SIM swapping attacks between March 2021 and April 2023, stealing the identities of dozens of victims.
SIM swapping is a way to intercept passwords and two-factor authentication codes. This is done by taking over the mobile phone by exchanging the SIM cards.
The trio had also gained access to the accounts of an FTX employee via his AT&T cell service.
After the hack, the $400 million loot was sent to several crypto exchanges, including Kraken, to launder the stolen cryptocurrencies. That was apparently in vain.
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