Graham Ivan Clark, a ‘mastermind’ behind last years’ unprecedented Twitter Bitcoin scam has plead guilty to 30 state charges against him. As part of the deal Clark agreed to serve three years at a juvenile facility, followed by three years probation.
Clark, who was 17 at the time, was arrested back in July 2020 along with two other suspects. The arrest came a short time after the Twitter hack that involved takeover multiple high-profile accounts, including those belonging to former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Uber, Apple, Kanye West and Jeff Bezos. The attackers used compromised accounts to post messages offering money to users if they made a payment to a bitcoin address.
“I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes ... Enjoy!” read one message.
The investigation revealed that the attackers got access to accounts using social engineering techniques. The hackers apparently targeted Twitter employees with access to internal systems and tools, which they then used to compromise high-profile accounts.
According to Tampa Bay Times, Clark was charged as a “youthful offender” by the Florida state attorney in Tampa. Provisions of the plea agreement require that Clark will be barred from using computers without permission and supervision from law enforcement, as well as hand over the passwords to any accounts he controls.