TAMPA, Fla. _ Graham Ivan Clark, the 17-year-old accused of taking control of major Twitter accounts in order to solicit Bitcoin payments, pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
The quick hearing took place over Zoom. Clark is scheduled for a bail hearing on Wednesday.
Clark faces 30 charges: 17 counts of communications fraud, 11 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count each of organized fraud for more than $5,000 and accessing a computer or electronic device without authority. He is being held in Hillsborough County jail on $725,000 bail.
He is accused of "masterminding" a plan to gain access to prominent Twitter accounts, sending out tweets soliciting others to send in payments of the hard-to-track cryptocurrency with promises that it would be returned doubled.
In all, Clark reaped $117,000 over about three hours, prosecutors said.
Some of the celebrities who authorities say were hacked by Clark included presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Wiz Khalifa, Floyd Mayweather, Elon Musk and Kanye West. A handful of companies had their accounts hacked, too, including Apple and Uber. Twitter said the hackers had access to 130 Twitter accounts and tweeted from 45.
