🧑💻 Canadian hacker indicted by U.S. prosecutors, accused of stealing $65 million in cryptocurrency
Recently, a Canadian hacker named Andean Medjedovic was indicted by a U.S. federal court, accused of stealing approximately $6.5 million in cryptocurrency from two decentralized finance platforms, one called Indexed Finance and the other called KyberSwap.
This 22-year-old hacker reportedly manipulated smart contracts from 2021 to 2023, causing the protocols to miscalculate financial data, then extracted funds at a low price, resulting in significant losses for investors.
Prosecutors stated that Medjedovic attempted to hide his illegal gains through various means, including digital asset exchanges, bridge transactions, and cryptocurrency mixers for money laundering. U.S. prosecutor John J. Durham described this as a "highly sophisticated scheme" that utilized two decentralized finance protocols to steal tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from investors.
If convicted, Medjedovic could face up to 10 years in prison for computer damage, with other four charges carrying a maximum of 20 years. This Canadian has been on the run since stealing funds from Indexed Finance in 2021. He has defended himself online with the argument of "code is law," claiming that these actions were legal.
Meanwhile, during several months in 2023, KyberSwap lost approximately $5 million in cryptocurrency. Blockchain investigators linked the incident to the wallet of this 22-year-old man, which later transferred $2 million to another wallet also associated with him. Prosecutors stated that after exploiting vulnerabilities, he attempted to transfer the stolen cryptocurrency to Ethereum but was blocked by developers. Allegedly, he felt frustrated and contacted customer service, asking them to handle the transaction.
Laurence Day, co-founder of Indexed Finance, stated that the arrest of the suspect would not bring much comfort to the victims. Most of the stolen cryptocurrency was later taken in another hacking incident, complicating recovery efforts.
In summary, this matter is quite complex, and it involves a lengthy process of recovering related assets! Do you think this hacker's "code is law" defense holds water? See you in the comments!