Three people have been charged with orchestrating a SIM-swapping scam that siphoned more than $400 million from FTX as the cryptocurrency exchange spiraled into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Hours after FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned, hackers drained hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital currency from the platform, before funneling it through a web of decentralized exchanges. Bankman-Fried, who is facing decades in prison after being convicted of fraud late last year, distanced himself from the hack, but speculated that it could have been an inside job. Turns out it wasn’t, prosecutors say. The Department of Justice charged Robert Powell, of Illinois, Emily Hernandez, of Colorado, and Carter Rohn, of Indiana, last month with participating in a SIM-swapping ring that targeted FTX and other individuals over a two year period. SIM swappers have repeatedly identified victims in the crypto world and FTX’s lax security — pointed out by the company’s new CEO after he took over — appeared to make it a prime target. According to the indictment filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., Powell, Rohn and Hernandez collected personal data of about 50 victims and used the information to convince cell phone providers to port the victims’ phone numbers to a dummy phone in their possession. In doing so, the trio could intercept text messages — including multi-factor authentication codes, which allowed them to break into the victims’ financial accounts and crypto wallets. The indictment does not name FTX, but two people familiar with the case confirmed it was in fact “victim company-1” in the court filings.
