Two brothers studying at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were arrested on Wednesday (May 15) and accused of stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency. Authorities said brothers Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, carried out a cutting-edge scheme to exploit the integrity of the Ethereum blockchain and steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, reported the Reuters news agency.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan called the scheme perpetrated by the Bueno brothers a "novel" and said the case marked the first time such a fraud had been the subject of criminal charges in the United States.
Millions stolen in just 12 seconds
The brothers pulled off their elaborate heist in April of last year, stealing $25 million from merchants in just 12 seconds by fraudulently gaining access to pending transactions and disrupting the movement of cryptocurrency, authorities said.
"As we allege, the defendants' scheme calls into question the very integrity of the blockchain," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Anton was arrested in Boston, while James was arrested in New York.
the accusation
At MIT, the brothers studied computer science and mathematics and developed the skills and education they relied on to carry out their fraud, prosecutors said Wednesday.
An indictment charged them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleged that for months the brothers conspired to manipulate and alter the protocols used to validate transactions for inclusion on the Ethereum blockchain.
See also | The United States accuses two brothers of stealing $25 million in cryptocurrencies
They did this by exploiting a vulnerability in the software code called MEV-boost used by most of the Ethereum network's "validators," which are responsible for verifying that new transactions are valid before adding them to the blockchain, the researchers said. prosecutors.
After the brothers carried out the heist, they rejected requests to return the funds and instead took steps to launder and hide the stolen cryptocurrency.
(With contributions from agencies)
