Two brothers were taken into federal custody Tuesday after allegedly stealing about $25 million worth of cryptocurrency in just a few seconds. In the “first-ever operation” of the Ethereum blockchain. Brothers Anton and James Perer Bueno studied mathematics and computer science at MIT and are using the skills they learned at “one of the most prestigious universities in the country” to “resolve the very integrity of the Ethereum blockchain. Prosecutors say the purpose was to illegally obtain the funds.the brothers were charged with a crime Wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy.
“Unfortunately for the defendants, their criminal charges have been passed down to the Department of Justice prosecutors and Internal Revenue Service officials who uncovered this first-ever wire fraud and money laundering scheme,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a press release. It didn't come close,” he said.
Although the robbery took just seconds, the brothers spent months planning it, charging documents allege. The indictment alleges that the Perer Bueno brothers “carefully planned and executed” the attack beginning sometime in December 2022. The brothers are said to have created an “online document” outlining a four-step plan: 1) Decoy, 2) Block to Blind the Enemy, 3) Search, and 4) Propagation.
The brothers set up a series of Ethereum validators “using shell companies, intermediary virtual currency addresses, foreign exchange, and privacy layer networks to conceal their identities,” according to the indictment. They targeted the three traders and had been investigating their behavior for months, prosecutors allege, conducting “a series of test trades or 'bait trades'” to attract bots used by the traders. It is said that it was set.
Prosecutors allege the brothers exploited vulnerabilities in Ethereum's code that were later patched. “In doing so, they gained unauthorized access to pending private transactions and used that access to modify certain transactions and obtain victims' virtual currency,” a Justice Department press release alleged. ing.
The Perer Bueno brothers allegedly stole about $25 million worth of virtual currency and then laundered the money through multiple shell companies. The brothers' online search history in the weeks after the alleged theft included information such as “top cryptocurrency lawyer” and “How long will our statue remain?” [sic] “The Limits of Limits”, “Illegal Ethereum Access Database”, “Money Laundering Statue” [sic] It's called a “statute of limitations.” One of the victims and his attorney, as well as Ethereum representatives, contacted the Perair Bueno brothers repeatedly between April and June 2023, according to the indictment.
If convicted, each of the three charges carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
