The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, just announced the indictment of a former cybersecurity professional who allegedly hacked into an international decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) and stole $9 million in crypto assets .
According to the indictment, Shakeeb Ahmed carried out the attack sometime in July 2022 when he exploited a vulnerability of the Solana (SOL)-based DEX.
The 34-year-old, a senior security engineer at an international technology company at the time of the attack, allegedly entered fake pricing data that caused the platform’s smart contract to generate $9 million in hefty fees.
Ahmed then withdrew the cryptocurrency fees and laundered them to hide the source and owner of the funds. The suspect also tried to evade prosecution.
“After stealing the fees he never legitimately earned, AHMED had communications with the Crypto Exchange in which he decided to return all the stolen funds except $1.5 million if the Crypto Exchange agreed not to refer the attack to law enforcement.
After the attack, AHMED searched online for information about the attack, its own criminal liability, criminal defense attorneys with expertise in similar matters, law enforcement’s ability to successfully investigate the attack, and flee the United States to avoid criminal charges.
Ahmed was arrested in New York on Tuesday and now faces charges of bank fraud and money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Williams says the allegations are the first criminal prosecution ever brought with an attack on a smart contract operated by a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.
“As alleged in the indictment, Shakeeb Ahmed, who was a senior security engineer at an international technology company, used his expertise to defraud the exchange and its users and steal approximately $9 million worth of cryptocurrency.”
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