17-year-old alleged Twitter hacker pleads ‘not guilty’

A 17-year-old man accused of hacking high profile Twitter accounts in a recent digital currency scam has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Graham Ivan Clark, who is accused of being the ringleader of the recent hack of celebrity Twitter accounts, made the plea in response to 30 charges before the Hillsborough Circuit Court, the Tampa Bay Times reported. If found guilty, the charges carry a sentence of up to 200 years in prison.

Among the charges are 17 counts of communications fraud, with a further 11 counts of illegal use of personal information. Clark is also charged with organizing fraud over $5,000 and illegally accessing a computer or electronic device.

A bail hearing is expected to take place this week, where attorneys are expected to argue that his bail of $725,000 be reduced to a lower amount. Clark is currently on remand in prison, alongside Nima Fazeli, 22, and Mason Sheppard, 19, who are also accused of involvement in the scheme.

The hack saw some 130 Twitter accounts compromised back in July, including those belonging to Apple, Elon Musk, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The accounts were used to send tweets soliciting BTC, promising those who sent digital currency double their money in return. According to information obtained from blockchain records, the scam managed to pull in as much as $117,000 in the first three hours of going live.

The two co-accused are facing a litany of similar charges in California, with Fazeli facing up to 5 years in jail and a fine of $250,000, while Sheppard could face a $750,000 fine and up to 45 years behind bars.

Investigators were led to the accused by accessing KYC information from Coinbase, after linking several transactions to account information leaked from online hacker’s marketplace OGUsers.