A Florida teen is facing 30 felony charges for scamming people across America, and perpetrating the \u201cBit-Con\u201d hack of prominent Twitter accounts including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk.<\/b>
\nTAMPA (CBSMiami) \u2014 A Florida teen is facing 30 felony charges for scamming people across America, and perpetrating the \u201cBit-Con\u201d hack of prominent Twitter accounts including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk. Graham Clark,17, was arrested Friday in Tampa, where the Hillsborough State Attorney\u2019s Office will prosecute the case. \u201cThese crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they\u2019re not the primary victims here. This \u2018Bit-Con\u2019 was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that,\u201d Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said. The investigation revealed Clark\u2019s scheme involved hacking the Twitter account of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls to scam people around the world out of Bitcoin, Authorities said he posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin to accounts associated with Clark, and received more than $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day. As a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is difficult to track and recover if stolen in a scam. Some of the bogus tweets sent out on July 25 came from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden,Mike Bloomberg and numerous tech billionaires including Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft\u2019s Bill Gates and Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. \u201cI want to congratulate our federal law enforcement partners\u2014the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of California, the FBI, the IRS, and the Secret Service\u2014as well as the Florida Department of Law enforcement. They worked quickly to investigate and identify the perpetrator of a sophisticated and extensive fraud,\u201d State Attorney Warren said. \u201cThis defendant lives here in Tampa, he committed the crime here, and he\u2019ll be prosecuted here,\u201d Warren added. The Hillsborough State Attorney\u2019s Office is prosecuting Clark because Florida law allows minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases such as this when appropriate. The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to partner with the office throughout the prosecution.\u201d \u201cWorking together, we will hold this defendant accountable,\u201d Warren said. \u201cScamming people out of their hard-earned money is always wrong. Whether you\u2019re taking advantage of someone in person or on the internet, trying to steal their cash or their cryptocurrency\u2014it\u2019s fraud, it\u2019s illegal, and you won\u2019t get away with it.\u201d Clark is charged with Organized Fraud, Communications Fraud, Fraudulent Use of Personal Information and Access to Computer or Electronic Device Without Authority.<\/p>\n