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After orchestrating a bid of hacks connected 2 decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXs) that stole much than $12 cardinal worthy of crypto, erstwhile information technologist Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced contiguous to 3 years successful prison, this is the first-ever astute declaration hacking condemnation successful the US.
Ahmed was besides ordered to forfeit the stolen crypto and wage restitution to the affected exchanges.
Engineer Exploits Crypto Vulnerabilities In $12 Million Hacks
According to charging documents and tribunal filings, Ahmed conducted 2 abstracted attacks on decentralized exchanges. In the archetypal incident, which took spot connected July 2 and 3, 2022, helium manipulated fake pricing information to make astir $9 cardinal successful inflated fees. Subsequently, Ahmed withdrew these fees successful the signifier of cryptocurrency.
Following the theft, Ahmed communicated with the exchange, offering to instrumentality the stolen funds, but $1.5 million, if the speech did not impact instrumentality enforcement.
Shortly after, connected July 28, 2022, Ahmed targeted different decentralized speech called Nirvana Finance. Exploiting a vulnerability successful Nirvana’s smart contracts, helium purchased crypto assets astatine a little terms than intended and promptly resold them backmost to Nirvana astatine a higher price.
Despite Nirvana offering a important “bug bounty” of up to $600,000 for the instrumentality of the stolen funds, Ahmed demanded $1.4 million. This led to the illness of the exchange, which had mislaid each its possessed funds, astir $3.6 million, owed to Ahmed’s attack.
From Security Expert To Cybercriminal
The probe revealed that Ahmed utilized “advanced wealth laundering techniques” to conceal the root and ownership of the stolen funds.
These included token swap transactions, transferring fraud proceeds from the Solana (SOL) blockchain to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain done “bridging,” converting the funds to Monero, and past utilizing overseas exchanges and cryptocurrency mixers specified arsenic Samourai Whirlpool.
Ahmed, a US citizen, held a elder information technologist presumption astatine an planetary exertion institution astatine the clip of the attacks. His resume showcased expertise successful reverse engineering astute contracts and conducting blockchain audits, skills that helium utilized to execute the hacks.
In summation to the three-year situation term, Ahmed was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release. He indispensable forfeit astir $12.3 million, including a important magnitude of cryptocurrency, and wage the affected exchanges implicit $5 cardinal successful restitution. Commenting connected Shakeeb Ahmed’s sentencing, US Attorney Damian Williams said
Today, Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced to situation successful the first-ever condemnation for the hack of a astute declaration and ordered to forfeit each of the stolen crypto. No substance however caller oregon blase the hack, this Office and our instrumentality enforcement partners are committed to pursuing the wealth and bringing hackers to justice. And arsenic today’s condemnation shows, clip successful situation — and forfeiture of each the stolen crypto — is the inevitable effect of specified destructive hacks.
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