A California resident, Michael Terpin has filed a 69-page complaint against AT&T in US District Court in Los Angeles, in which he alleged that he lost almost $24 million in cryptocurrency.

Michael Terpin, a US entrepreneur, and cryptocurrency investor co-founded an Angel Investment group called BitAngels in 2013. Terpin is also a founding partner of the Dapps Venture Fund in 2014.

Terpin is also a senior advisor to Alphabit Fund, one of the world’s largest digital currency hedge funds.

Michael Terpin’s lawsuit

Terpin claimed that he managed to get hacked because of “AT&T’s willing cooperation with the hacker, gross negligence, violation of its statutory duties, and failure to adhere to its commitments.”

In the very elaborate complaint he filed, Terpin claims that an individual working with the hacker impersonated him, after getting unauthorized access to his cell phone account.

Terpin stated that the hacker convinced an AT&T employee to grant them access to his phone number without requiring valid identification or PIN to Terpin’s account.

The lawsuit filed by Terpin claims that his account has been hacked twice in the last seven months. An excerpt from the lawsuit reads:

“[M]ost troubling, AT&T has not improved its protections even though it knows from numerous incidents that some of its employees actively cooperate with hackers in SIM swap frauds by giving hackers direct ACCESS to customer information and by overriding AT&T’s security procedures.”

To that, Terpin is suing the world’s largest telecommunications provider, claiming the company’s failure to protect his cellphone data led to hackers stealing $23.8 million in cryptocurrencies.

Terpin filed the lawsuit seeking a compensatory damage of the $23.8 million he reportedly lost in the last two thefts, in addition, Terpin is seeking $200 million in punitive damages from AT&T.

Terpin also claims that security issues are nothing new to AT&T, which has been already accused of failing to protect its clients. Terpin also stated that:

“In recent incidents, law enforcement has even confirmed that AT&T employees profited from working directly with cyber terrorists and thieves in SIM swap frauds,”

Terpin claims AT&T was in on the hack

Aside from accusing the telecommunication giants of negligence and not adhering to its commitments, Terpin claimed that AT&T’s employees have been complicit in a SIM swap fraud.

In a SIM swapping fraud, a hacker tricks a provider into transferring a subscriber’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by him.

Once that person gets the phone number, it can be used to reset the subscriber’s passwords and access online accounts.

Sim swapping allows hackers to access the victim’s accounts at various services, which includes cryptocurrency wallets.

In another statement, Terpin said

“mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency cannot take place as long as phone company employees are handing over critical unauthorized access to the heart of everyone’s digital lives.”

Jim Greer told said on behalf of the company that “[they] dispute these allegations and look forward to presenting our case in court.”