Three people have been indicted on identity theft and conspiracy in the wake of an alleged $400 Mn SIM swap hack of FTX customers on the same day of FTX’s filing for bankruptcy protection in November on 2022, court records show.

Bahama-based FTX itself became insolvent due to a run on deposits after it was found that CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had been engaging in unethical practices which sparked a general concern over potential mismanagement of funds. This caused a chain reaction that caused Silvergate and Signature Bank to follow FTX to the gallows of financial ruin.

Robert Powell, 26, of Illinois, has been dubbed the ringleader of the network breach that drained over $400 Mn in virtual currency from FTX customers. Two more defendants, Carter Rohn, 24, and 23-year-old Emily Hernandez, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

All three were arrested last week in their respective states.

From March 2021 to last April conspirators traveled to cellphone retail stores in more than 15 states to fraudulently enable SIMs under the false identities of 50 victims.

The scheme relied on duping phone companies into swapping the Subscriber Identity Module of cell phone subscribers into a cellphone controlled by members of the conspiracy, the indictment said. That in turn allowed the conspirators to defeat the multi-factor authentication protection on the victims’ accounts, giving them access to the money in those accounts.

Rohn, an Indianapolis resident, was ordered held without bond after his arrest. His detention hearing will be held later in Washington.

Hernandez, who lives in Fountain, Colorado, was released last week on a $10,000 bond.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.

The indictment does not identify FTX by name as the main victim of the conspiracy, but the details of the hack described in that charging document align with the details publicly known about the theft from FTX, which was collapsing at the time of the attack.

A source familiar with the case confirmed that FTX was the victim mentioned in the indictment.