The young man is now suspected of over 30 crimes, including fraud, identity theft and data breach, according to prosecutors. The district attorney in Hillsborough county, where Tampa is located, Andrew Warren, described in a live press conference that several authorities, including the FBI, were involved in the investigation.
The prosecutor says nothing about how many people were involved, but talks about fraudsters in the plural and calls the 17-year-old the "brain" behind the crime. The man will be prosecuted in Florida, where minors can be prosecuted in the same way as adults in cases involving financial fraud.
- Deceiving people on their hard earned money is always wrong. Whether you are exploiting someone directly or via the internet, whether you are trying to steal their cash or their cryptocurrency. It's fraud, it's illegal, and you can not get away with it, says Andrew Warren.