April 15, 2024 at 07:48AM
Former senior security engineer Shakeeb Ahmed, 34, of New York, was sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding two cryptocurrency exchanges of $9 million and $1.4 million, using smart contract vulnerabilities to manipulate prices. Ahmed, who worked at an international tech company, must forfeit $12.3 million and pay $5 million in restitution.
Summary of Meeting Notes:
Shakeeb Ahmed, a former senior security engineer, has been sentenced to three years in prison for hacking and defrauding two cryptocurrency exchanges. He was arrested in July 2023 and pleaded guilty in December of the same year.
The court documents reveal that Ahmed defrauded a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange of roughly $9 million by exploiting a smart contract vulnerability, faking price data, and generating inflated fees. He then agreed to return most of the funds but kept $1.5 million as a bounty.
In a separate incident, Ahmed targeted the decentralized crypto exchange Nirvana Finance, exploiting a different vulnerability to purchase and sell virtual assets at manipulated prices. After failing to reach an agreement with the exchange, he kept all the stolen assets.
To conceal his activities, Ahmed used various techniques such as token-swap transactions, exchanging proceeds in other cryptocurrencies, bridging assets between blockchains, and using cryptocurrency mixers and overseas exchanges.
The court also noted that Ahmed worked at an international technology company at the time of the attacks, seemingly suggesting it could be Amazon, as indicated by his LinkedIn profile. In addition to the prison term, Ahmed was sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit approximately $12.3 million, and pay over $5 million in restitution to the victim cryptocurrency exchanges.