Bit Angel’s Michael Terpin Files Lawsuit Seeking 81 Million For Hack

By Rishma Banerjee

Bit Angels is the world’s first distributed veteran entrepreneur and angel investor group focused on funding the digital currency ecosystem. According to reports published by Blokt, the company’s founder Michael Terpin has recently filed a new lawsuit which seeks $81 million in damages from a New York man as well as several other people who had allegedly stolen $24 million from Terpin last year.

Terpin has as per reports, filed a civil suit and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations claim back in December. He claims that Nicholas Truglia along with 25 other unnamed people had been active participants in the hack. Truglia has been accused of being one of the main conspirators behind the ‘OG Users’ gang that had allegedly carried on the SIM swap hacks last year.

Last November, Truglia was arrested on 21 counts of theft, including altering or corrupting computer data with an intent to defraud, using personal information without authorization, and grand theft. Reports doing rounds on the rumor mill also said that he had hacked into the cellphones of multiple executives in Silicon Valley.

The alleged hack had been carried on when the criminals gained access to Terpin’s mobile phone and then proceeded to use his account to intercept calls and text messages. The hackers were then able to gain access to Terpin’s cryptocurrency accounts by intercepting the two-factor authentication messages.

Terpin, in the lawsuit, filed with the California Superior Court in Los Angeles claimed that not only was the company aware of attempts to hijack his account and had placed “vaunted additional protection on his account after an earlier incident.”

Terpin’s latest lawsuit seeks $81 million in damages, citing RICO law violations. The law is commonly used to impose hefty penalties against organized crime groups.

With the monumental growth in the popularity of cryptocurrencies, the crime rates related to these digital assets have also sky-rocketed. This has initiated more and more rounds of regulations regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain, all around the world.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.

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