A cryptocurrency investor in the US has filed a lawsuit against his cell phone service provider AT&T on the grounds of gross security negligence that lead to his personal loss of USD 24 million in crypto.
The plaintiff, California resident Michael Terpin, filed a 69-page complaint with the US District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday alleging that AT&T not only violated its statutory duties and Privacy Policy commitments but went so far as to willingly cooperate with the phone hacker. Terpin claimed that he was victim to digital identity theft two times in seven months when his digital assets were taken via his cell phone number.
Suspicious circumstances were cited by Terpin regarding the actions of at least one AT&T employee. He alleged that ”insider cooperation with the hacker” took place after a store employee offered out his phone number without verifying the person’s identity or requesting any of his private information. Terpin’s complaint details that his number was then used to break into his cryptocurrency accounts and compares the incident to a hotel providing a thief with a fake ID the key to a room and the safe to steal from the rightful owner.
The legal complaint seeks from AT&T USD 200 million in punitive damage and USD 24 million in compensatory damages.
AT&T responded to the accusations, providing CNBC with a statement reading: “We dispute these allegations and look forward to presenting our case in court.”
Terpin may well have been considered a profitable target by potential thieves due to his work in the cryptocurrency industry. In 2013, he co-founded Bitcoin angel investor group BitAngels, as well as the BitAngels/Dapps Fund.
The cryptocurrency community has recently placed a significant focus on increased security as imperative for increasing adoption levels and seeing market prices recover from a relatively poor performance this year, although in this instance it appears to be only AT&T at fault.
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