Two brothers who studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the US have been charged with stealing $25m (\u00a320m) in cryptocurrency in 12 seconds.<\/b><\/p>\n
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, are accused of wire fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n
The US Department of Justice said the alleged heist is the first of its kind.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors also say the pair, reportedly educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), carried it out in April 2023.<\/p>\n
“The Peraire-Bueno brothers stole $25 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency through a technologically sophisticated, cutting-edge scheme they plotted for months and executed in seconds,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.<\/p>\n
She added that agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) played a key role in unravelling the “first-of-its kind wire fraud and money laundering scheme”.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege the two used highly specialised skills that they learned at “one of the most prestigious universities in the world” to exploit Ethereum’s process for validating transactions.<\/p>\n
The brothers studied mathematics and computer science, according to the indictments, and both attended MIT, according to news reports.<\/p>\n
“The defendants’ scheme calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the public ledger that records crypto payments.<\/p>\n
The brothers allegedly stole from Ethereum traders by fraudulently gaining access to pending private transactions and then altering the transactions to obtain their victims’ cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n
The process, which investigators say they referred to as “the Exploit”, took only a matter of seconds to execute.<\/p>\n
When confronted by a representative for Ethereum, officials say the brothers declined to return the funds and took steps to launder and hide their stolen gains.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors note that this is the first time that such a “novel” form of fraud has ever been subject to criminal charges.<\/p>\n
They each face over 20 years in prison if found guilty.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"