Two former MIT students accused of stealing $25 million in crypto in 12 seconds

CNN
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Two brothers who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were arrested Wednesday, accused in the United States of carrying out a cutting-edge scheme to exploit the integrity of the Ethereum blockchain and steal $25 million in crypto cash.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan called the scheme perpetrated by Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, “new” and said it was the first time such a fraud had been carried out. facing criminal charges in the United States.

Authorities said they executed their elaborate heist in April 2023, stealing $25 million from traders in just 12 seconds by fraudulently accessing pending transactions and altering the movement of cryptocurrencies.

“As we allege, defendants’ scheme calls into question the very integrity of blockchain,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

An indictment charged them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Anton Peraire-Bueno was arrested in Boston, while James Peraire-Bueno was arrested in New York.

Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Both brothers had attended MIT, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where, prosecutors say, they studied computer science and mathematics and developed the skills and education they relied on to successfully complete their fraud.

The indictment alleged that for months, the Peraire-Bueno brothers conspired to manipulate and alter protocols used to validate transactions for inclusion in the Ethereum blockchain, a public ledger that records every cryptocurrency transaction.

Prosecutors said they did so by exploiting a vulnerability in the code of software called MEV-boost that is used by most of the Ethereum network’s “validators,” responsible for verifying that new transactions are valid before they are not added to the blockchain.

Prosecutors said that after carrying out the heist, the brothers rejected demands to return the funds and instead took steps to launder and hide the stolen cryptocurrency.