Teen ‘mastermind’ accused of crippling Twitter hack is linked to deadly home robbery
Graham Ivan Clark is one of three people accused of taking over some of the world’s most followed Twitter accounts to mount a bitcoin scam
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Florida teenager who is accused of participating in last month’s Twitter bitcoin scam, which saw several of the world’s highest-profile accounts hacked, has reportedly been linked to an attempted robbery that ended in a lethal shooting.
An investigation by the Tampa Bay Times has found that 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark, who is credited by police as one of the “masterminds” of the scam, has also been named in the case of a burglary seven months ago that saw one teenager killed and another wounded.
The violent incident took place in January. According to local police, it began when two teenagers from Tampa’s Gaither High School broke into an apartment, one holding a gun; a resident shot them both, and one of them died. Two other teenagers were stopped at the same building, and remain suspects in the incident.
The Times quotes a local state attorney saying that while Clark “was not in the apartment when the shooting took place”, his involvement in other investigations jived with his being “the mastermind of a sophisticated global fraud”.
Clark is one of three people charged in relation with the Twitter hacking, one of the most serious security breaches in the platform’s history, which saw the profiles of people including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and many more hijacked to fraudulently solicit bitcoin payments.
The scam’s perpetrators apparently sold access to some of the accounts, and Twitter had to take the drastic step of temporarily suspending all verified accounts while it established what had happened and tried to secure what had been breached.
Clark now faces 30 felony charges in the case. Two other men – 22-year-old Nima Fazeli and 19-year-old Mason Sheppard – are accused of benefiting from the hack and have been charged in California federal court.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments