U.S. prosecutors have charged a 22-year-old Canadian man with stealing a mixed $65 million in crypto by means of two separate decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks — the 2021 Listed Finance exploit and the 2023 KyberSwap hack.
In a newly-unsealed indictment filed within the Japanese District of New York (EDNY), prosecutors say Andean “Andy” Medjedovic was the mastermind behind each exploits. Although Medjedovic’s alleged function within the KyberSwap exploit was beforehand unknown, he has publicly admitted to being the Listed Finance attacker, wiping $16 million from the DeFi platform when he was nonetheless an adolescent.
Medjedovic did little to cover his identification because the Listed Finance hacker as a result of he professed to consider he wasn’t truly doing something unlawful. One other DeFi hacker, Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, took the same “code is regulation” place after his 2022 Mango Markets exploit, claiming that siphoning $110 million from the decentralized trade was honest sport. A New York jury disagreed, discovering Eisenberg responsible of fraud and market manipulation. He will probably be sentenced later this 12 months, and faces as much as 20 years in jail.
Medjedovic has been on the run since December 2021, when a Canadian court docket issued a warrant for his arrest. In 2023, he advised a DeFi Llama reporter that it was “exhausting” dwelling as a fugitive, saying that he had been bouncing round by means of Europe, South America and an unnamed island nation whereas on the lam. A spokesperson for the Japanese District of New York (EDNY) advised CoinDesk that Medjedovic stays “at massive” and isn’t believed to be within the U.S.
Eight months after telling the identical reporter that he was now a whitehat hacker, prosecutors say Medjedovic stole about $50 million from KyberSwap. In keeping with the indictment, Medjedovic deliberate the KyberSwap hack for months earlier than performing, writing to himself “Discover time to Strike!” and making a “POST-EXPLOITATION” plan for himself.
In a single file, Medjedovic allegedly mused on his previous errors, writing “Going On the run / Sure / Likelihood of getting caught<Payoff for not getting caught / (NA) / Threat is often underpriced in fashionable world.”
Medjedovic has been charged with one rely of wire fraud, one rely of unauthorized injury to a protected pc, one rely of tried Hobbs Act extortion, one rely of cash laundering conspiracy and one rely of cash laundering. He faces a most penalty of 90 years in jail.
