The wallets of Graham Clark, the 17-year-old American accused in the Twitter hack, contain more than $3 million in bitcoin. This was disclosed by the lawyer for the American teen, according to Tampa Bay Times
Clark is accused of hacking the social network, during which the attacker posted fake messages about giving away bitcoin from the accounts of famous individuals and companies. The damage from his actions is estimated at about $120,000.
The lawyer did not specify the source of the funds, but assured that authorities have no doubts about their legality. In 2019, Clark was implicated in a criminal case, in which 400 BTC (~$4.47 million at current rates) and $15,000 in cash were seized from the youth. The fiat money and 300 BTC were later returned to the owner.
On Saturday, the court set bail for Clark at $725,000, but the prosecution insisted on $1 million. Under Florida law, to be released from custody the defendant need only pay 10% of the amount.
The prosecution expressed doubts about the legality of the source of funds in the youth’s accounts.
“Based on the defendant’s actions, I deem it permissible to infer that every penny available to him was obtained illegally. And we’re talking about millions of dollars,” the publication quotes the prosecution as saying.
The prosecution says that to carry out the hack Clark also hired 22-year-old Nima Fazeli and 19-year-old Mason Sheppard. Both suspects have been arrested, their case is being heard at the federal level. Clark’s trial proceeds under state law due to his minor status. The defendant first appeared before a Florida court via videoconference on Saturday.
Earlier, 45 accounts of well-known figures, including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Bill Gates and others, were compromised in the Twitter hack of July 15.
Later, said that the attackers gained access to the social network’s internal tools through phishing aimed at employees’ mobile phones.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Facebook!