
A bail hearing by Zoom for the 17-year-old who allegedly hacked some of the world’s highest-profile Twitter accounts last month was interrupted Wednesday by pornographic video and music.
Graham Ivan Clark’s lawyers were asking a Florida court to lower their client’s bail, saying the $725,000 he’s required to post to get out of jail is disproportionate to the alleged amount of the loss in the case, when the raunchy images were broadcast into the hearing.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Fla., released the photo Graham Ivan Clark, 17, after his arrest Friday, July 31, 2020. Clark is accused of hacking Twitter, gaining access to the account of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and many others. Clark was able to scam people around the globe of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin.
He remains in jail on the $725,000 bond.
Clark later agreed to forfeit 100 Bitcoins from that account as part of an agreement with authorities in Florida and California under which he wasn’t prosecuted and admitted no wrongdoing, Weisbrod said.
Prosecutor Darrell Dirks urged the judge to keep Clark in jail, saying authorities are still investigating the extent of the hack and that the loss may be greater than $117,000. The judge hadn’t ruled on the bail request when he was forced to cancel the hearing because of the porn bombs.
“The defendant’s conduct regarding the stealing of the identities of famous people and his attempt to hijack the funds of innocent individuals in less than four hours, that occurred 20 days ago,” Dirks said. “We are still discovering the breadth and depth of the defendant’s criminal conduct.”
In the end, the judge kept the bond as it is but granted the request to remove the condition that Clark prove the source of his funds, Weisbrod said after the hearing.