Judge Turns Down AT&T Over $224m SIM-Swapping Lawsuit

A United States federal judge has turned down AT&T’s request to dismiss a $224 million lawsuit over an incident regarding SIM-swapping that led to more than $20 million in stolen cryptocurrency.

According to a recently published press release, it is confirmed that the American multinational telecommunications giant confirmed will see court time over allegations that it violated the Federal Communications Act as well as several other laws when hackers assumed the identity of the cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin back in 2017.

Speaking in his defence, Terpin’s lawyers said:

“Judge Wright strongly repudiated AT&T’s audacious bid to prevent [Terpin] from demonstrating to a jury the carrier’s contempt for consumers’ privacy and utter disregard of its legal obligations to prevent this very type of SIM swap and financial crime.

The evidence will show that AT&T not once, but twice allowed hackers posing as [Terpin] to obtain his SIM card.”

The federal lawsuit relates ti fraudster Nicholas Truglia, the alleged head of a SIM-swapping outfit believed to have stolen around $80 million worth of virtual currency from high-profile cryptocurrency owners which include the aforementioned Terpin.

In 2018, lawyers said:

“On January 7, 2018, [Terpin’s] phone with his AT&T wireless number went dead. As [Terpin’s] subsequent discussions with AT&T revealed, an AT&T employee on that date had ported over [Terpin’s] wireless number to an imposter.” 

Together with a gang of 25 fraudsters, Truglia is said to have sourced false identification data through means of the dark web.

Truglia has bragged in the past saying, “I’m a millionaire. I’m not kidding. I have 100 Bitcoin... Nobody can get me in trouble. Nobody can put me in jail. I would bet my life on it, actually.”

Well fast forward to May 2019 and Truglia was ordered to pay just under $76 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Terpin. 

Maybe just because you’re a millionaire and own a hundred Bitcoin, doesn't mean you’re outside of the law…