The official charges don’t explicitly name Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX as the victimized company, but according to Bloomberg, that’s precisely the crypto exchange in question.
On Wednesday, the U.S. federal government brought charges against three individuals involved in a prolonged phone hacking scheme, culminating in the notorious theft of $400 million from FTX during the tumultuous period when Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange was on the verge of collapse.
As outlined in an 18-page indictment filed in a D.C. court, Robert Powell, Carter Rohn, and Emily Hernandez are accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud and identity theft through their operation of a SIM swapping ring. This ring targeted fifty victims from March 2021 to April 2023.
Their most significant heist occurred on November 11, 2022, when the trio illicitly drained $400 million from an unnamed company. Bloomberg, citing insider sources, pointed to FTX as the targeted entity. The modus operandi involved gaining access to a crypto exchange employee via AT&T and then executing the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of crypto.
These charges provide some clarity to one of the lingering mysteries in the FTX saga—shedding light on the fate of the hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto that vanished during the exchange’s darkest hour, following its filing for bankruptcy protection.
