back to article US accuses Canadian math prodigy of $65M crypto scheme

New York feds today unsealed a five-count criminal indictment charging a 22-year-old Canadian math prodigy with exploiting vulnerabilities in two decentralized finance protocols, allegedly using them to fraudulently siphon around $65 million from investors in the platforms. Prosecutors allege Andean Medjedovic abused automated …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trivial route out, spend money, become 'president' thus immune to any wrongdoing / prosecution and continue on your merry way screwing everyone you can.

    1. DS999 Silver badge

      He should stay in hiding

      And work on an attack against Trump's memcoin. If he can drive the value of those to zero he will be a public enemy number one on the FBI's most wanted list, but he'll be a hero to Trump haters everywhere for hitting the orange moron where it hurts most - in his wallet! And these days there are a LOT of Trump haters in Canada so he shouldn't have any difficulty finding people willing to help him stay in hiding!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So.... What were these "smart contracts" for? i.e. were the contracts for a tangible exchange of goods or services, or are they simply another variation on the many crypto pyramid schemes?

    1. Blazde Silver badge

      If you're worried your tulips might be worthless so you want to exchange them for daffodils, or you're worried the dyke might fail and flood your tulips so you want to move them to a safer warehouse, well you can buy my fun new buttercups (aka Kyber Network Crystals) and my poorly written trading software (aka automated smart contracts) will do those trades for you in an unnecessarily elaborate way, in return for a fee and/or some risk of all your tulips ending up in the hands of 'math prodigy'.

    2. tmTM

      Smart contracts

      Only as smart as the idiot that created them.

  3. Kevin Johnston

    unauthorized damage to a protected computer

    Not very protected though was it

    1. JimmyPage
      Stop

      Re: unauthorized damage to a protected computer

      Surely it's irrelevant whether it was "protected" or not ?

      1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

        Re: unauthorized damage to a protected computer

        What? Like those websites that 'experienced a sophisticated hack' ...... when someone edited the URL?!?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Geeks

    shall inherit the Earth.

    1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

      Beware of Geeks ....

      .... bearing gifts!

      1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

        Up shit Geek ....

        .... without a paddle!

    2. sitta_europea Silver badge

      Re: The Geeks

      He needs a Geek Interpreter.

  5. gnasher729 Silver badge

    US courts cannot be trusted, so let him go. Let anyone go who steals bitcoin or similar from US citizens. Let Musk refund them.

  6. KittenHuffer Silver badge
    Joke

    Just remember

    There will be a 25% tariff on any monies that are recovered and returned!

  7. Nightkiller

    There would be no issue if this happened in North Korea.

  8. Wolfclaw

    1. Unauthorized damage to a protected computer - No, he used their own broken code to beat the system, no physical damage to the system can be proven, no different to somebody beating the odds at gambling

    2. Wire fraud - Yes

    3. Attempted Hobbs Act extortion

    4. Money laundering charges

    He's going down though, when they catch him, although a few millions Dollars, you can live well in a country with no USA extradition treaty.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      although a few millions Dollars, you can live well in a country with no USA extradition treaty.

      Generally, in those countries, sooner or later, the local organized criminals find you, beat the crap out of you until you cough up any keys/passwords they need to steal your money, and then they give you a dirt nap to tie up the loose ends.

  9. ChodeMonkey
    Stop

    Stop The Crypto Crime Season!

    That is President & First Lady Trump's grift !!!

  10. BartyFartsLast Silver badge

    Me? Laugh at the hypocrisy?

    It's rather amazing how "code is law" and that the crypto Bros love to wank on about freedom and government oversight when it's going in their favour but then run crying to the authorities when it's not.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Me? Laugh at the hypocrisy?

      Give it a week and he will be appointed head of the SEC

  11. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    I thought all this sort of thing was the sole purpose of cryptocurrencies.

  12. I am David Jones Silver badge

    Code isn’t law but a smart contract is effectively written in stone. Unlike a written contract, any mistakes cannot be corrected. It is permanently stored in the chain and will be executed come hell or high water. There are mitigations but it is a complex problem to solve.

    1. Blazde Silver badge

      It's solved the same way - in fact more easily - that fraudulently obtained regular currency is dealt with. The exchanges/banks refuse to move it around and so, unless it's a small amount you can pay your cryptobro milkman with, you're stuck exposing it to money laundering risk and write-down, or you accept it's permanently stuck in the black market and buy a stolen van Gogh with it, or whatever.

      1. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

        Code is law versus fraud

        Yep, the 'code is law' view is interesting. But, it's a matter of... if you use social engineering, 'brain hacks', pig butchering, erc. to get a person to hand over cash, you are defrauding them. Even though they are giving you money fully volintarily. So clearly (at least to me) this is the same. You're not committing theft perhaps but are committing fraiud using this technique to receive funds with smart contracts.

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