A 17-year-old was arrested for being the mastermind of the massive bitcoin Twitter hack

A 17-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida was arrested by the FBI, IRS, US Secret Service, and Florida law enforcement, who accuse the teenager of being the "mastermind" behind the Bitcoin scam Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of over a dozen famous people including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and President Obama.

Here's the press release from Andrew H Warren, in the Office of the State Attorney 13th judicial circuit:

Hillsborough State Attorneys Office tapped to prosecute worldwide Bit-Con hack of prominent Twitter users

Tampa, FL (July 31, 2020) Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren has filed 30 felony charges against a Tampa resident for scamming people across America, perpetrating the Bit-Con hack of prominent Twitter accounts including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk on July 15, 2020.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a complex nationwide investigation, locating and apprehending the suspect in Hillsborough County.

These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but theyre not the primary victims here. This Bit-Con was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that, State Attorney Warren said.

The investigation revealed REDACTED, 17, was the mastermind of the recent hack of Twitter. He was arrested in Tampa early on July 31. REDACTEDs scheme to defraud stole the identities of prominent people, posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin to accounts associated with REDACTED, and reaped more than $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day.