Eric Council Jr. of Athens, Alabama, pleaded guilty on February 10, 2025, to helping take over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account through a SIM-swap scheme. The account then carried a false Bitcoin exchange-traded-fund announcement. Council was later sentenced to 14 months in prison, three years of supervised release and forfeiture of $50,000.
The final legal outcome
Council admitted to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access-device fraud in federal court in Washington, D.C. The Department of Justice initially said the charged offenses carried a statutory maximum of five years in prison, subject to the federal Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. That maximum was not the sentence imposed.
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SecurityWeek later reported that Council, who was described as 25 at the time of his plea and 26 at sentencing, received 14 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $50,000 forfeiture order. The forfeiture corresponded to approximately $50,000 he received for carrying out the SIM-swap portion of the operation.
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What happened to the SEC’s X account
On January 9, 2024, the SEC’s official @SECgov account published an unauthorized message claiming that the agency had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. The message appeared to be written in the name of then-Chair Gary Gensler.
The SEC regained control and said the post resulted from a security breach and was not authorized. Bitcoin rose by more than $1,000 after the announcement, then fell by more than $2,000 after the SEC repudiated it. The reaction occurred while investors were intensely awaiting an actual SEC decision on spot Bitcoin ETFs, which made a purported regulatory announcement especially credible and market-moving.
The price swing shows the effect of the false message; it does not establish that Council or his co-conspirators made money by trading Bitcoin. The case also does not establish that Council personally wrote or posted the message.
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Sources: DOJ account and Associated Press coverage carried by SecurityWeek.
How the SIM-swap attack worked
The reported intrusion began with identity fraud and a mobile-carrier account takeover, rather than a demonstrated software exploit against the SEC’s internal network.
- Co-conspirators obtained personal information about an individual whose phone number was linked to the SEC’s X account.
- Council used an identification-card printer to create a fraudulent identity document and impersonated the individual at an AT&T store.
- The carrier transferred the victim’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by Council.
- With control of the number, the attackers could receive SMS messages, including password-reset or authentication codes.
- Council passed access information to co-conspirators, who took control of the X account and published the false announcement.
A SIM swap occurs when a criminal persuades a mobile carrier to move a victim’s number from the legitimate SIM to one controlled by the criminal. Calls, texts and SMS-based recovery codes can then reach the attacker. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center explains the broader threat in its SIM-swapping advisory.
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Council’s role and the charges
The DOJ’s account distinguishes Council’s admitted role from that of the co-conspirators. Council carried out the fraudulent identity process and SIM swap; the co-conspirators subsequently used the recovered account access to publish the message. Calling the incident an “SEC hack” is understandable shorthand, but the known access path was a social-engineering-enabled phone-number takeover followed by an X-account takeover.
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The charges were:
- Conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft
- Access-device fraud
Reports identified aliases including “Ronin” and “Agiantschnauzer.” Council was arrested in October 2024. The charging outcome does not mean he was convicted of a separate offense called Bitcoin market manipulation, and the available account does not prove that he personally traded on the price movement.
Evidence described at sentencing
According to SecurityWeek’s sentencing coverage, the FBI searched Council’s Athens residence in June 2024. Investigators recovered a fake identification card, a portable ID-card printer and a laptop. The laptop contained templates for additional identification documents and searches related to the SEC account takeover and SIM swapping.
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Council also admitted to additional SIM-swapping attempts in June 2024 and to receiving approximately $50,000 for the operation. Those details help explain the forfeiture order and why the case involved more than a single unauthorized social-media post.
Key dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 9, 2024 | The SEC’s X account carried the false Bitcoin-ETF approval announcement; Bitcoin briefly rose and then fell after the SEC corrected the post. |
| June 2024 | The FBI searched Council’s residence and recovered alleged evidence, including a fake ID, printer and laptop. |
| October 2024 | Council was arrested. |
| February 10, 2025 | He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access-device fraud. |
| May 2025 | SecurityWeek reported the 14-month prison sentence, three years of supervised release and $50,000 forfeiture. |
Sources for the chronology include the DOJ release, SecurityWeek’s plea-stage report and its sentencing report.
Why the case matters for account security
Phone numbers can become recovery keys
If a high-value account relies on SMS for password resets or multifactor authentication, a carrier-level number transfer can defeat protections that appear to be in place. The weak point may be the identity-verification process at the carrier rather than the platform hosting the account.
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- WORKS WITH 1000+ ACCOUNTS: Compatible with Google, Microsoft, and Apple. A single Security Key C NFC secures 100 of your favorite accounts, including email, password managers, and more.
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Market-moving accounts need stronger controls
An official account representing a financial regulator is a communications channel with immediate market consequences. Organizations should use phishing-resistant, hardware-backed authentication where supported, restrict administrative access, maintain independent recovery procedures and verify urgent posts through an out-of-band channel.
“Hacked” is not a complete technical description
The public record describes compromise of the SEC’s X account through identity fraud, a phone-number transfer and password-reset access. It does not, on the information cited here, show a breach of the SEC’s broader computer network or a vulnerability in X’s software.
Quick Recap
What readers should take from the case
- The false ETF announcement was unauthorized; the SEC did not approve Bitcoin ETFs in that post.
- The Bitcoin price movement demonstrates market sensitivity, not proof of a profitable trade by Council.
- Council’s admitted conduct centered on the SIM swap, while co-conspirators used the resulting access to post the message.
- The final legal result is 14 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $50,000 forfeited—not merely the five-year maximum cited when the plea was announced.
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