Washington DC - A staff member of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency reportedly has ties to an infamous cyber gang, which one victim described as "bad folks."

According to Reuters, Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old DOGE staffer known as "Big Balls," founded a network service company called DiamondCDN while he was a high school student in 2022.

Records revealed that the company did business with a cyber crime ring known as "EGodly," as internet protocol addresses registered to DiamondCDN were tied to the group's website, dataleak.fun, between October 2022 and June 2023.

The gang thanked the company in February 2023, writing, "We extend our gratitude to our valued partners DiamondCDN for generously providing us with their amazing DDoS protection and caching systems, which allow us to securely host and safeguard our website."

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That year, EGodly used a now-defunct Telegram channel to brag about some of its criminal acts, including claims of hijacking phone numbers, breaking into unspecified law enforcement email accounts in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and cryptocurrency theft. One victim claimed the group was made up of "hardened fraudsters."

In one instance, members circulated personal details of an FBI agent whom they believed was investigating the group. One member even shared a video of a group driving by the agent's home and yelling, "EGodly says you're a b***h!"

The agent told Reuters, "These are bad folks. They're not a pleasant group."

The news of Coristine's ties to a cyber gang comes as many critics have raised concerns about who President Donald Trump and Musk have allowed to work in DOGE, and what it could mean for national security.

Nitin Natarajan, the former Deputy Director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told Reuters, "The recency of the activity and the types of groups [Coristine] was associated with would definitely be concerning."

Notably, Coristine was previously fired from an internship with a data security firm after he allegedly leaked sensitive information to its competitor, according to Bloomberg.