Urban, who goes by the alias "Sosa," “Elijah,” and “King Bob” was "part of a group of loosely organized individuals who engage in account takeovers and [stole] cryptocurrency from online exchanges" from August 2022 through March 2023, according to the plea agreement. "During a May 2023 interview with investigators, Urban estimated that he had personally made several million dollars between January 2021 and March 2023 through cryptocurrency theft and that he had been involved in the theft of several million more overall," prosecutors said. The charges against Urban and the four other men were unsealed in November and a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed at the time that the five are part of Scattered Spider group — responsible for several devastating cyber incidents including the ransomware attack on MGM Casino in 2023. Urban is accused of working with Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, Evans Onyeaka Osiebo, Joel Martin Evans, Tyler Buchanan and others from August 2022 to March 2023 to hack into companies and steal cryptocurrency. Urban, 20, was arrested last year after federal prosecutors accused him of being a key member of Scattered Spider — a notorious cybercriminal operation best known for using the SIM swap tactic to take over a victim’s phone to bypass two-factor authentication. Urban and four others were accused of using the tactic to steal millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency and gain access to large corporations, exposing troves of sensitive company documents and more. "Urban and his co-conspirators were able to obtain the victims' personally identifiable information and then exploit it by attempting to access different types of cryptocurrency exchanges,” prosecutors said. A member of the Scattered Spider cybercrime group has pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to the theft of cryptocurrency and sensitive corporate documents. The FBI said that the group is an offshoot of a larger pool of online criminals who dubbed themselves "the Community," or "the Com.” Several other alleged Scattered Spider members have been arrested internationally. Investigators seized a total of $2.89 million worth of cryptocurrency from Urban’s desktop computer during raids on his home in March 2023. When interviewed by the FBI, Urban admitted that all of the cryptocurrency found on his computer was the result of his work with Scattered Spider. Urban is forfeiting all of the cryptocurrency seized during the raids and will pay more than $13 million in restitution to more than 30 victims.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:50:14 +0000