A US court has sentenced Shakeeb Ahmed to a few years in jail for hacking two separate decentralized crypto exchanges and stealing digital property value over $12 million, in keeping with an April 12 statement from the US Division of Justice.
The sentencing marks the primary time somebody has been convicted for hacking a smart contract.
US lawyer Damian Williams stated:
“No matter how novel or sophisticated the hack, this Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to following the money and bringing hackers to justice. And as today’s sentence shows, time in prison — and forfeiture of all the stolen crypto — is the inevitable consequence of such destructive hacks.”
Ahmed was additionally ordered to forfeit roughly $12.3 million and a major amount of crypto and pay over $5 million in restitution to the unnamed crypto alternate and Nirvana.
The hacks
In 2022, Ahmed hacked the smart contracts of two decentralized crypto exchanges, together with Nirvana and an unnamed protocol, for a considerable quantity of a digital asset.
The DOJ stated Ahmed manipulated pricing knowledge on the unnamed platform to siphon roughly $9 million in inflated charges and withdrew the funds in crypto. Subsequently, Ahmed agreed to return round $7.5 million underneath the situation that the alternate refrains from involving legislation enforcement.
Shortly after, Ahmed focused Nirvana Finance, stealing about $3.6 million. Based on the DOJ, Ahmed exploited Nirvana’s smart contracts to buy crypto at decrease costs from the alternate and bought it at larger costs.
Regardless of the alternate providing a $600,000 bounty, Ahmed demanded $1.4 million, resulting in a stalemate and the retention of all stolen funds, culminating within the alternate’s closure.
Subsequently, Ahmed laundered the stolen digital property utilizing refined strategies corresponding to token-swap transactions and superior crypto mixers like Samourai Whirlpool.
On the time of those thefts, Ahmed was a senior safety engineer for an unnamed worldwide know-how firm.
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