The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly unsealed indictments that have been made against three people for allegedly stealing more than $400 million from the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
These three individuals had allegedly carried out a sophisticated SIM-swapping technique in order to gain access to various internal accounts at FTX.
As noted in the filings that were submitted this past week, defendants Carter Rohn, Robert Powell, Emily Hernandez are now all facing serious fraud as well as conspiracy charges for allegedly carrying out various SIM swap attacks on several victims from the time period between March 2021 all the way through to April of last year.
A SIM swap hacking tactic typically involves deceptively tricking a mobile carrier into sharing a particular individual’s phone number onto a SIM card that is being controlled by the hacker(s).
In this type of attack, the bad actors may be able to access a number of sensitive online accounts associated with the compromised phone number (even including two-factor authentication codes that may be used for improved security).
By methodically exploiting such vulnerabilities at AT&T, the three named individuals had reportedly managed to gain control of an FTX worker’s phone number. This allowed them to get into exchange systems and steal crypto-assets valued at approximately $400 million.
While the indictment makes references to the FTX exchange as “Victim Company-1,” Bloomberg later confirmed with sources that the pilfered assets actually belonged to FTX.
These latest charges were announced shortly after Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on charges of fraud and conspiracy counts over FTX’s spectacular collapse. Additionally, SBF is currently facing a maximum prison sentence of 115 years, while even more serious issues/damages emerge from the FTX collapse.