A security engineer named Shakeeb Ahmed has pleaded guilty to carrying out two DeFi hacks on the Solana blockchain, resulting in the theft of over $12 million. The first attack occurred in July 2022, when Ahmed targeted an unnamed decentralized exchange and generated $9 million through inflated fees. He agreed to return all but $1.5 million of the stolen funds if the exchange refrained from reporting the attack. However, Ahmed was ultimately arrested and charged in July 2023.
Ahmed’s second attack took place around July 28, 2022, on a Solana-based decentralized finance platform called Nirvana Finance. In this attack, he manipulated flash loans to purchase Nirvana’s ANA token at a low price and then resold the tokens at a higher price, obtaining $3.6 million. Despite failed negotiations with Nirvana, Ahmed refused to return the stolen funds, leading to the platform’s shutdown due to significant financial losses.
To conceal his illicit gains, Ahmed converted the stolen funds into Monero (XMR), used crypto mixers like Samourai Whirlpool, employed a blockchain-hopping strategy, transferred funds to the Ethereum blockchain, and conducted transactions on international crypto exchanges. He also searched for information on legal defenses and the possibility of fleeing the United States.
Ahmed’s guilty plea to one count of computer fraud carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He has agreed to pay $5 million in restitution to his victims. The conviction serves as a significant milestone, demonstrating that even sophisticated methods of fraud will be swiftly caught and prosecuted by authorities.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 |
| Sentiment | neutral |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Damian Williams, Shakeeb Ahmed |
| Companies | Decentralized exchange, Samourai Whirlpool, Ethereum, Nirvana Finance |
| Currencies | Ethereum, Monero |
| Securities | None |
