Council Receives 14-Month Sentence for His Role in the 2020 Hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission

The 14-month sentence that Council received in D.C. federal court was 10 months less than what was requested by prosecutors

A U.S. federal judge on Friday sentenced to 14 months in prison a man who was part of a group that hacked the Securities and Exchange Commission's social media accounts in February 2023.

The sentence imposed by Judge John D. Sauermann in D.C. federal court was 10 months less than what was requested by prosecutors, who in a sentencing memorandum this week said that a group that provides tools for hackers in February posted on X a video statement "purportedly made by the Defendant."

In the video, the 26-old Huntsville resident Council "acknowledged his role in the hack and referenced his role in the hack and referenced his discussions with law enforcement and guilty plea as steps towards accountability, he blamed the SEC's cybersecurity practices, claiming, '[t]he @SECGov Hack was an inside job' and 'the SEC still hasn't taken full accountability for investor losses due to cyber security practices of a lonely 85- year-old with dementia,' " prosecutors wrote.

"Defendant ends the video with a message where he continued to diminish his and his conspirators' culpability.

The animated video, depicting characters dancing, concludes by saying: "But at the end of the day, the only reason their financial regulatory agency got hacked was because of a college drop out that majored in Cyber Security and violently smoked a lot of weed."

Council's defense lawyer, Dwight Crawley, in a sentencing memo, requested a prison term of 12 months and a day for his client, noting that he has no prior criminal history.

"The defendant admitted to using marijuana daily prior to his arrest, but he has not had any drug or alcohol infractions since his release on pre-trial supervision," Crawley wrote.

"According to the defendant, his marijuana use aided him with his mental health struggles."

Crawley declined to comment on Council's case when contacted by CNBC on Friday. The lawyer hung up when asked about the video cited by prosecutors.

Council's role in the hack conspiracy involved executing a so-called SIM swap attack on a person whose phone number was linked to the SEC's X account.

Council was tipped to the identity of that person by a member of the conspiracy and then used a portable ID car printer to print out that person's driver's license, court records state. He then used the ID at an AT&T store in Huntsville to get an employee there to reassign the victim's cell phone number to a telephone controlled by Council, records said.