JAKARTA - A former security engineer from an international technology company has been arrested and tried on suspicion of using a smart contract bug to steal $9 million in cryptocurrencies from Solana-based decentralized exchanges.
On June 11, the United States Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced the "first criminal case" involving an attack on a smart contract operated by a decentralized exchange (DEX).
In a statement, Williams claimed that the defendant, Shakeeb Ahmed, "used his expertise to deceive the exchange and its users and steal about $9 million in cryptocurrency."
Williams said the attack was carried out in July 2022 and aimed at Solana-based DEX.
The attack involved exploiting vulnerabilities in exchange smart contracts to generate costs too high by utilizing flash loans.
Later, the funds were withdrawn and laundered through a "complex transfer series on the blockchain where he exchanged cryptocurrencies, jumped across various crypto blockchains, and used foreign crypto exchanges."
Although Williams did not disclose the DEX exploited in July, an earlier report from Cointelegraph revealed that an unknown hacker had exploited Solana-based Crema Finance liquidity protocol on July 2, 2022, stealing $9.6 million in cryptocurrency.
Hackers then returned most of the funds, but were allowed to keep $1.6 million (IDR 24.3 billion) as a scam wage.
Similarly, Williams' statement also noted that Ahmed returned all the stolen funds except USD 1.5 million on condition that the crypto exchange did not report the attack to law enforcement.
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"These actions did not erase the traces of the defendant or deceive law enforcement, and of course did not stop my office or our law enforcement partners from following the flow of funds," he said.
Ahmed was arrested in New York and charged with fraud through a telecommunications network and money laundering related to the attack on Solana-based DEX in July 2022.
In response to this latest news, crypto lawyers and startups Orlando.btc commented that this step could be good for the overall decentralized financial ecosystem.
The indictment shows that the United States Department of Justice will "criminalize if someone deliberately uses the protocol in an inappropriate way."
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