The first court hearing for the 17-year-old alleged “mastermind” of last month’s Twitter hack was cut short on Wednesday after pranksters disrupted virtual proceedings with profane, racist and, in one case, pornographic outbursts.
A defense attorney for Graham Ivan Clark, accused of breaking into the Twitter accounts of CEOs and famous politicians, from Barack Obama to Elon Musk, as part of a Bitcoin theft scheme, attempted to defend a reduction of Clark’s bail from $ 725,000, as well as a partial restoration of Clark’s Internet access.
But a Florida judge ended the hearing, which was conducted as a Zoom video call and did not require a password, less than 25 minutes after several participants loudly interrupted in what is known as Zoombombing.
In a bizarre incident, a virtual court hearing for a teenage hacker accused (along with two others) of compromising the Twitter accounts of 130 high-profile users was zoombed when a group of hackers began playing porn clips. and loud music during procedures. According to media reports, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher C Nash was forced to close the online hearing after someone streamed pornographic material during the proceeding via the Zoom Video Meet app.
Posing as CNN and BBC News, uninvited guests repeatedly disrupted the virtual court audience with rap music, movie dialogue, screaming and pornographic content, The Tampa Bay Times reports. Seventeen-year-old Graham Ivan Clark has been accused, along with two other young men, by the US Department of Justice of hacking into Twitter last month that compromised the accounts of 130 high-profile celebrities, politicians, and companies like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple and Uber.
The judge later resumed the hearing, “but people using screen names that resembled employees of media outlets like CNN and BBC News continued to disrupt the process.” The judge ultimately ruled against Clark’s request to reduce Clark’s bond. Under Florida law, it took 10 percent of the $ 750,000 bond posted – $ 72,500 – to release Clark pending trial.
For their screen names, the pranksters also used fictional movie character names, as well as the name of another judge in the same Florida courthouse where the case is being tried.
After the first meeting was closed, the court attempted to restart the call while selectively admitting authorized officials and the media, but the trolls quickly circumvented those restrictions as well.
He faces state charges for being a minor, according to federal authorities. Clark faces 17 counts of communications fraud, 11 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count of racketeering. Mason Sheppard (aka “Chaewon”) of the United Kingdom, 19, has been charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and intentional access to a computer.
