Two brothers who studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the US have been charged with stealing $25m (£20m) of cryptocurrency in 12 seconds.
Anton Perer-Bueno, 24, and James Perer-Bueno, 28, are charged with wire fraud and money laundering.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it was the first robbery charge of its kind.
Prosecutors also say the two men, who are said to have been educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), committed the crime in April 2023.
“The Perer Bueno brothers stole $25 million in Ethereum in a technologically sophisticated, state-of-the-art scheme that was planned over months and executed in seconds,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Stated.
He added that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials played a key role in unraveling “the first-ever wire fraud and money laundering scheme.”
Prosecutors claim the two used highly specialized skills learned at “one of the world's most prestigious universities” to exploit Ethereum's transaction verification process.
According to reports, the indictment says the brothers studied mathematics and computer science and both attended MIT.
“Defendants’ scheme calls into question the very integrity of the blockchain,” U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the public ledger that records cryptocurrency payments.
The brothers allegedly stole from Ethereum traders by illegally accessing pending private transactions and falsifying the transactions to obtain the victims' cryptocurrencies.
The process, which investigators are calling an “exploit,” took just a few seconds to execute.
Officials said that when they met with Ethereum representatives, the brothers refused to return the funds and took steps to launder and hide the stolen profits.
Prosecutors note that this is the first time such a “novel” form of fraud has been the subject of criminal prosecution.
If convicted, they each could receive more than 20 years in prison.
