{"id":20410,"date":"2025-05-13T15:41:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/sec-hacker-counters-prosecutors-with-366-day-sentencing-recommendation\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T15:41:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:41:32","slug":"sec-hacker-counters-prosecutors-with-366-day-sentencing-recommendation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/sec-hacker-counters-prosecutors-with-366-day-sentencing-recommendation\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC hacker counters prosecutors with 366-day sentencing recommendation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defense lawyers have asked a judge to sentence the person responsible for helping post a fake message announcing regulatory approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to roughly a year in prison, countering prosecutors\u2019 request for a two-year sentence.<\/p>\n

In a May 13 filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Eric Council Jr.\u2019s legal team asked that he be sentenced to no more than one year and one day in prison following his guilty plea. <\/p>\n

Council was part of a group that took control of the US Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s (SEC\u2019s) X account in 2024 through a SIM swap attack, posting a message<\/a> that suggested the regulator had approved spot Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) exchange-traded fund listings for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sentence of twelve months and one day serves the ends of justice,\u201d said the May 13 filing. \u201cIt sufficiently punishes the defendant for his role in this case. It also promotes respect for the law and deters future criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Council Jr.\u2019s sentencing recommendation, filed on May 13. Source: PACER<\/em><\/p>\n

Council initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but changed his plea to guilty in February on one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. The judge overseeing the case, Amy Berman Jackson, also ordered prosecutors to \u201cidentify the felony and point to where that information can be found in the record\u201d by May 13.<\/p>\n

Prison sentence between 1 and 2 years?<\/h2>\n

The SEC hacker is scheduled to be sentenced on May 16. Prosecutors asked the judge to impose a two-year sentence<\/a> on Council, saying he \u201cprofited through a sophisticated fraud scheme.\u201d\u00a0Court filings showed he earned<\/a> roughly $50,000 through similar SIM swap attacks.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong><\/em>ZKsync X hacker posts false SEC probe in apparent effort to crash token<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Though Council\u2019s case was likely winding down with his upcoming sentencing hearing, the DC court district could soon be under new leadership, potentially affecting the prosecution of crypto-related cases. On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro would become the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

Magazine: <\/strong><\/em>SEC\u2019s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defense lawyers have asked a judge to sentence the person responsible for helping post a fake message announcing regulatory approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to roughly a year in prison, countering prosecutors\u2019 request for a two-year sentence. In a May 13 filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Eric Council Jr.\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":20411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gold.creditcard\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}