Three people indicted in $400 million FTX hack conspiracy

Three people were indicted for an identity theft conspiracy that allegedly included the $400 million hack from FTX on the same day in November 2022 that the doomed cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection, court records show.

Three people were indicted for an identity theft conspiracy that allegedly included the $400 million hack from FTX on the same day in November 2022 that the doomed cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection, court records show.

Robert Powell, the alleged ringleader of the SIM-card swapping group that drained that crypto out of FTX’s virtual wallets, is due to appear in Chicago federal court later Friday for a detention hearing.

Also charged in the case are Carter Rohn, an Indianapolis resident, and Colorado resident Emily Hernandez, according to the indictment, which was issued in mid-January by a grand jury in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, in a scheme that ran from March 2021 to last April, and involved the co-conspirators traveling to cellphone retail stores in more than 15 states.

The indictment says the trio shared the personal identifying information of more than 50 victims, created fake identification documents in the victims’ names, impersonated them and then accessed their victims’ “online, financial and social media accounts for the purpose of stealing money and data.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/three-people-indicted-400-million-ftx-hack-conspiracy-rcna136976

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