Two ex-MIT pupils face accusations for swiping $25 million worth of digital currency in a mere 12 seconds.
Federal authorities in Manhattan described the actions of Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, as a one-of-a-kind scam. The case is historic, as it's the first time such a fraud scheme has been subject to criminal charges in the United States.
The perpetrators carried out their sophisticated heist in April 2023, stealing an astonishing $25 million from traders in just 12 seconds. They managed to do this by deceivingly gaining access to pending trades and altering the flow of cryptocurrency.
US Attorney Damian Williams stated, "As we allege, the defendants' scheme raises doubts about the integrity of the blockchain system."
A formal charge sheet accused them of conspiring to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiring to launder money. Anton Peraire-Bueno was apprehended in Boston, whereas James Peraire-Bueno was captured in New York.
Their legal representatives declined to comment on the situation immediately.
The brothers had both attended the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, they studied computer science and mathematics, utilizing the skills and knowledge they had gained to execute their fraud, according to prosecutors.
The indictment alleges that for months, the Peraire-Bueno siblings had been devising a plan to modify and meddle with the procedures used by the Ethereum blockchain to validate transactions. The Ethereum blockchain is a publicly accessible database that records all cryptocurrency transactions.
Prosecutors claim they exploited a weakness in the code of MEV-boost software, which is widely used by most Ethereum network validators, who ensure that new transactions are legitimate before they are added to the blockchain.
After successfully completing the heist, the brothers refused to return the funds and instead took steps to clean and camouflage the stolen cryptocurrency.
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Given their background in computer science and mathematics from MIT, the brothers saw an opportunity for investing in the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. Despite their successful business ventures in the digital currency sphere, their actions of manipulating the Ethereum blockchain for personal gain led to their downfall.
Source: edition.cnn.com
