A collection of bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum tokens.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergAllyson Versprille
US prosecutors charged a New York man with stealing millions of dollars in crypto after exploiting vulnerabilities on a decentralized finance or “DeFi” platform — the latest sign of increased willingness by authorities to wade into this corner of the digital-asset market to thwart alleged wrongdoing.
Shakeeb Ahmed, a 34-year-old senior security engineer for an international technology company, took advantage of a flaw in one of the exchange’s smart contracts to insert fake pricing data, generating about $9 million of inflated and unearned fees that he was able to withdraw in crypto, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in an indictment unsealed Tuesday. Manhattan prosecutors also accused Ahmed of laundering the stolen funds through a series of complex transactions, including using overseas digital-asset exchanges.
