London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Aug 10, 2026

Prosecutors Said A 17-Year-Old And Two Others Hacked All Those Famous Twitter Accounts In A Bitcoin Scam

“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here," prosecutors said.
Three people, including two teens, have been charged for their alleged roles in a wide-ranging Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and other prominent figures in order to promote a bitcoin scam, authorities announced Friday.

Florida prosecutors said Graham Ivan Clark, 17, of Tampa, was the "mastermind" of the July 15 hack and is facing 30 felony charges, including 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and 17 counts of communications fraud. Clark was arrested early Friday, according to the Hillsborough County State Attorney's office.

In addition to Clark, federal authorities in the Northern District of California also charged Mason Sheppard, 19, of Bognor Regis in the United Kingdom with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer. Nima Fazeli, a 22-year-old in Orlando, was charged with one count of aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer in connection to the scam.

“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida," State Attorney Andrew Warren said in a statement. "This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that."

Fazeli was arrested Friday and released to home confinement following a court appearance in Florida, according to Abraham Simmons, a spokesperson for the Northern District of California US Attorney's Office. No arrest information was available for Sheppard.

It was unclear whether Clark is also facing federal charges. Federal prosecutors did not identify him in a statement about the charges, noting that "juvenile proceedings in federal court are sealed to protect the identity of the juvenile," and that the federal government had referred the juvenile to Warren's office.

Simmons told BuzzFeed News he could not comment on the issue.

According to prosecutors, the perpetrators of the hack received more than $100,000 in Bitcoin as a result of the scam, which involved hacking the accounts of Obama, Biden, Musk, and other prominent figures, and then posting tweets from their accounts saying that they would double any bitcoin payments sent to the same bitcoin wallet.

Hacked accounts pinned the tweets promoting the giveaway scam to the top of their profiles or retweeted the posts. Other accounts that were hit included rappers Wiz Khalifa and the late XXXTentacion, boxer Floyd Mayweather, and billionaires Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and Warren Buffett.

While previous cryptocurrency scams have tended to mimic verified Twitter users by creating accounts that look similar to the real ones, the July 15 scam was different in that the hackers gained access to real, verified accounts to proliferate their scam.

In response to the security threat, Twitter prevented many verified accounts from tweeting for the rest of the day, though the accounts that were affected were still able to like, retweet, and send direct messages.

According to Twitter, the hackers gained access to the social media company's internal network and support tools by targeting "a small number of employees through a phone spear phishing attack." They then used the employees' credentials to target 130 accounts, "ultimately Tweeting from 45, accessing the DM inbox of 36, and downloading the Twitter Data of 7."

"We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses," Twitter's communications team tweeted Friday. "For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly."

The bitcoin wallet associated with the scam address sent or received 426 transfers between July 15 and 16, 415 of which "consisted of transfers from other bitcoin addresses into" the account, according to affidavits filed in federal court. The other 11 transfers were from the wallet associated with the scam address to other bitcoin addresses, "siphoning off 99.74% of the bitcoin deposited" and leaving a balance of just $274.01 in the account.

"No bitcoin was returned to the victims," the documents state.

According to the affidavits, authorities were able to identify the three individuals by tracing messages sent on Discord, an online messaging platform popular with gamers and hackers. The New York Times reported on the hackers' communications shortly after the attack, saying that scheme originated from a "teasing message" from a user named "Kirk."

“I work for Twitter. I can claim any @ for you," Kirk wrote, according to the affidavits.

"Prove it," the second user "Rolex," later identified by authorities as Fazeli, wrote back.

From there, Kirk showed Rolex and another Discord user later identified as Sheppard that he could take control of other people's Twitter accounts. The two then acted as "brokers" for Kirk, advertising "the sale of compromised Twitter accounts," procuring buyers, and "sending criminally derived proceeds from the sale of Twitter accounts to [Kirk] for the exchange for compromised Twitter accounts," according to the affidavits.

“There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence,” David Anderson, the US Attorney for the Northern District of California, said. “Today’s charging announcement demonstrates that the elation of nefarious hacking into a secure environment for fun or profit will be short-lived. Criminal conduct over the Internet may feel stealthy to the people who perpetrate it, but there is nothing stealthy about it. In particular, I want to say to would-be offenders, break the law, and we will find you.”
Comments

Oh ya 6 year ago
And people think it is safe to do online banking etc. 17 yr olds beating twitter. A fool and his money..........

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Russia’s A7 Builds a State-Linked Payments Network Beyond Western Sanctions
Reports of Mark Zuckerberg-Linked Superyacht Declining Rescue Assistance Draw Maritime Scrutiny
Preserving Three Banksy Artworks in London Has Cost Taxpayers Nearly £150,000
Four Ugandan Athletes Disappear From Delegation After UK Sporting Events
French Authorities Report Channel Interventions as Cross-Border Migration Dispute Continues
Home Office Admits Error in Settled Status Case Involving Long-Term Italian Resident
Unite Calls for Independent Review of UK Budget Watchdog's Fiscal Forecasting Rules
Thinktank Calls for £175 Annual Energy Bill Cut for Low-Income Households
Foreign-Linked Social Media Accounts Amplified Recent Unrest in Belfast and Southampton, Analysis Finds
London Mayor Sadiq Khan Orders Westminster to Drop Proposed Soho and West End Hospitality Ban
Royal Navy Deployments to Monitor Russian Activity in UK Waters Rise 25 Percent
UK Economy Expected to Grow 0.4 Percent in Second Quarter Despite Geopolitical Pressures
Andy Burnham Launches Cost-of-Living Measures Targeting Subscription Traps and Misleading Discounts
Hyper-Realistic Reborn Dolls Draw Collectors Seeking Comfort and Craft
Gen Z Cuts Back on Dating as a Night Out Nears $200
Patients Turn to Artificial Intelligence for Therapy as Psychiatrists Warn of Privacy and Clinical Risks
Couples Embrace ‘Sleep Divorce’ to Protect Rest and Reduce Tension
Meta Ordered to Pay $567 Million and Change Facebook and Instagram Safeguards for Children
Up to only 10 Months in Prison for Swedish Officer’s Murderer Sparks Anger
Success: Nvidia Turned Gaming Chips Into the Engine of the AI Boom
Jorge Messi, Lionel Messi’s Father and Longtime Agent, Dies at 68
AI’s Next Bottleneck Is Power, Not Just Nvidia Chips
Advertising trick: Pepsi’s Harrier Jet Commercial Led to a $700,000 Court Fight
Meta Raises AI Spending Target to as Much as $145bn Despite Pressure Over Returns
Danube Drought Exposes Nazi Wrecks and Pushes Central Europe’s Power System to the Brink
Joe Biden’s Cancer Has Spread Beyond His Bones, Hunter Biden Says
Air Traffic Control Outage Grounded Flights Across the Midwest
Why 2027 Could Be a Strong Year for Stocks—and Why the Forecast Is Fragile
Why Markets May Look Quiet in August After Big Tech Earnings
Partial Solar Eclipse Expected to Draw Interest Across Southwestern UK
UK Graduate Job Postings Fall 7% as Entry-Level Opportunities Remain Scarce
UK Private Sector Returns to Growth as July Activity Reaches Highest Level Since April
UK Summer Drought and Wildfires Raise Pressure for Stronger Environmental Measures
UK Household Credit Stress Rises as Credit Card Lending Growth Hits 12.5%
London Stock Exchange Revises AIM Rules to Make Growth Capital More Accessible
NHS England to Expand Mental Health Services With 155 New and Upgraded Facilities
UK Overhauls £90 Billion Public Procurement System to Reward Domestic Jobs and Apprenticeships
Andy Burnham Holds Strong Approval as Labour Maintains Narrow Lead Over Reform UK, Opinium Finds
Royal Navy Monitored Russian Warships and Shadow Fleet Tankers for 21 Days in July
Australian Crew Evacuates Seriously Ill American From Antarctica in Midwinter Darkness
Trump’s Top General Seeks an Exit Strategy From Iran War, Report Says
Brock Lesnar Retires From Wrestling, Closing a Career of Rare Athletic Range and Lasting Controversy
Welsh First Minister Raises Independence With UK Prime Minister in First High-Level Call
UK Maintains Severe Terror Threat Level as Prevent Report Highlights Online Radicalization
YouGov Poll Shows Labour Favourability Improves as Reform UK and Greens Lose Ground
Brexit Campaigner Arron Banks Admits Hiring Private Investigator to Examine Journalist
Robert Jenrick Leaves Conservatives for Reform UK in Major Parliamentary Defection
July 2026 Was England and Wales’ Driest Month on Record, Met Office Says
UK Government Considers Public Inquiry Into Jeffrey Epstein’s UK Connections
Trump-Era Policy Shifts Test the Boundaries of U.S. Institutions
×