twitter hack

Graham Ivan Clark, who was 17 at the time of the July hack, used accounts from people like President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and Bill Gates, to solicit more than $117,000 in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin from unsuspecting victims.

The 17-year-old, Graham Ivan Clark of Tampa, was arrested Friday and called the ‘mastermind’ of the crime by Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren. Clark faces 30 felony charges related to stealing the Twitter identities of famous people, posting messages as part of their accounts and directing followers to send Bitcoin to accounts he had.

Up to eight accounts had their private information compromised in the breach earlier this week, according to Twitter. Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Kanye West were among the users targeted.

Twitter confirms to NPR that it is investigating the coordinated hack, which attacked the accounts of some of the richest and most popular names on Twitter and may have reaped more than $100,000.