The United States accuses two brothers of a novel cryptocurrency heist worth $25 million By Reuters

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) – Two brothers who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were arrested on Wednesday on charges in the United States of carrying out a cutting-edge scheme to exploit the integrity of the blockchain and steal $25 million in cryptocurrencies.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan called the scheme perpetrated by Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, “novel,” and said the case marked the first time such a fraud had been targeted. of criminal charges in the United States.

Authorities said they executed their elaborate heist in April 2023, stealing $25 million from traders in just 12 seconds by fraudulently gaining access to pending transactions and disrupting the movement of cryptocurrencies.

“As we allege, the defendants' scheme calls into question the very integrity of the blockchain,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

An indictment charged them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Anton Peraire-Bueno was arrested in Boston, while James Peraire-Bueno was arrested in New York.

His attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Both brothers had attended MIT based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where prosecutors say they studied computer science and mathematics and developed the skills and education they relied on to carry out their fraud.

The indictment alleged that for months, the Peraire-Bueno brothers conspired to manipulate and alter the protocols used to validate transactions for inclusion in the Ethereum blockchain, a public ledger that records every cryptocurrency transaction.

Prosecutors said they did so by exploiting a vulnerability in the software code called MEV-boost used by most of the Ethereum network's “validators,” who are responsible for verifying that new transactions are valid before adding them to the blockchain. blocks.

Prosecutors said that after carrying out the heist, the brothers rejected requests to return the funds and instead took steps to launder and hide the stolen cryptocurrency.