The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reopened a case against AT&T, a major American telecommunications company, related to a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap that resulted in the theft of $24 million in cryptocurrencies in 2018. According to a court panel filing, nearly all charges against AT&T were dismissed by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, except for one claim under Section 222 of the Federal Communications Act (FCA) where a triable issue was presented by the plaintiff.
In 2018, Ellis Pinsky, then 15, and Nicholas Truglia, 21, bribed an AT&T employee to transfer crypto investor Michael Terpin’s SIM card information to another card. This SIM swap allowed them to bypass two-factor authentication and steal $24 million in crypto assets. Terpin, founder of the international crypto incubator BitAngels, discovered the theft, sued AT&T, and tracked Pinsky, who returned $2 million. Terpin later sued Truglia for $75.8 million in damages and won, leading to Truglia’s 18-month prison sentence.
After Pinsky turned 18 in 2020, Terpin sued him for $71.4 million in damages but eventually agreed to a $22 million settlement. Pinsky also agreed to testify in the case against AT&T.
In 2020, a California judge dismissed most of Terpin’s claims against AT&T, only approving three of the 16 claims. Earlier this year, Terpin appealed the decision. The Appeals Court confirmed the partial dismissal of claims, leaving Terpin seeking $45 million from AT&T. Additionally, another crypto investor sued AT&T in 2020 over a similar SIM swap attack that led to a $1.8 million cryptocurrency loss.
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