NYC man charged in $1 million Bay Area cryptocurrency theft
A Manhattan man who once accused his friends of torturing him for bitcoin account information has been charged in Santa Clara County with using a SIM swapping scheme to steal $1 million from a San Francisco man, according to court documents.
Nicholas Truglia, 21, is suspected in at least 11 cases across the country of commandeering people’s smartphones and impersonating them to obtain their personal information, including bank access. Seven of those cases were reported in California, one involving a Cupertino victim and another a San Francisco man who may be the only victim in the state who lost money through Truglia’s ruse.
Court filings show that Truglia has been charged in Santa Clara County with 21 felony counts related to hacking into the smartphones of at least five victims. The charges stem from the work of REACT task force, a Bay Area tech- crime detective squad based in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors believe many victims typically are targeted because of their involvement in the field of cryptocurrency.
“The important thing for these SIM swappers to know is that REACT is operating on a national level,” said Erin West, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney who prosecutes many REACT cases. “Anyone who victimizes someone from Santa Clara County will be investigated and prosecuted no matter where in the country you are.”
The San Francisco victim is a father of two who had stashed $500,000 in each of two digital banks, Gemini and Coinbase. On Oct. 26, he contacted REACT after discovering he had been the victim of SIM swapping.
In SIM swapping cases, a hacker convinces a mobile phone carrier to transfer a target’s phone number from the registered SIM card — the small portable chip that houses identification information connecting an account to the cell network — to another SIM card the hacker provides.
The con is typically achieved either by having an inside source at the carrier, by getting someone to open a phishing email, or by reciting personal infor- mation mined from social media accounts. By having access to a person’s smartphone, particularly text messages, a digital intruder can bypass many online security measures.
REACT, staffed by investigators from the DA’s and sheriff’s offices in Santa Clara County, latched onto the case thanks in part to its growing national reputation for criminal tech probes, particularly in SIM swapping. The task force obtained a series of search warrants that linked the smartphone involved in the SIM swaps to Truglia, and on Nov. 14 REACT detectives and U. S. Secret Service agents went to his high-rise condo on 42nd Street in the heart of Manhattan.
“They woke him up and arrested him,” West said.
During their search, West said, authorities found a digital hardware wallet that contained $300,000 in cryptocurrency that presumably belongs to several of Truglia’s alleged victims, including the one in San Francisco.
West said Truglia has refused to waive extradition to Santa Clara County, and remains in custody at the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he is being held without bail. The next extradition for the suspect is Dec. 13.
Truglia made the headlines in his native New York City earlier this month when he accused four of his friends of torturing him to force him to give up his bitcoin account information. That accusation was questioned and the defendants’ attorney claims Truglia recanted it.
The San Francisco victim had put away the $1 million for his two daughters’ college funds. By the time he was able to confirm that he had been SIM swapped through his wireless carrier, the money had been converted to cryptocurrency, and moved from his account.
“The tragedy here is any one of us can be a victim. On any given day, someone can steal your life savings,” West said. “This person put aside for his children’s education. This is devastating for people.”