
U.S. prosecutors have charged a 22-year-old Canadian guy with stealing a blended $65 million in crypto thru 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 used to be the mastermind in the back of each exploits. Despite the fact that Medjedovic’s alleged function within the KyberSwap exploit used to be prior to now unknown, he has publicly admitted to being the Listed Finance attacker, wiping $16 million from the DeFi platform when he used to be nonetheless a youngster.

Learn extra: After Stealing $16M, This Youngster Hacker Turns out Intent on Trying out ‘Code is Regulation’ within the Courts
Medjedovic did little to cover his identification because the Listed Finance hacker as a result of he professed to consider he wasn’t if truth be told doing anything else unlawful. Some other DeFi hacker, Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, took a identical “code is legislation” place after his 2022 Mango Markets exploit, claiming that siphoning $110 million from the decentralized change used to be honest sport. A New York jury disagreed, discovering Eisenberg to blame of fraud and marketplace manipulation. He’ll be sentenced later this yr, and faces as much as two decades in jail.
Medjedovic has been at the run since December 2021, when a Canadian courtroom issued a warrant for his arrest. In 2023, he informed a DeFi Llama reporter that it used to be “onerous” dwelling as a fugitive, pronouncing that he were bouncing round thru Europe, South The us and an unnamed island country whilst at the lam. A spokesperson for the Japanese District of New York (EDNY) informed CoinDesk that Medjedovic stays “at huge” and isn’t believed to be within the U.S.
8 months after telling the similar reporter that he used to be now a whitehat hacker, prosecutors say Medjedovic stole about $50 million from KyberSwap. Consistent with the indictment, Medjedovic deliberate the KyberSwap hack for months sooner than appearing, writing to himself “To find time to Strike!” and making a “POST-EXPLOITATION” plan for himself.
In a single record, Medjedovic allegedly mused on his previous errors, writing “Going At the run / Sure / Probability of having stuck<Payoff for now not getting stuck / (NA) / Chance is usually underpriced in trendy international.”
Medjedovic has been charged with one rely of cord fraud, one rely of unauthorized harm to a secure laptop, 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.
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