Man charged with stealing millions of dollars in crypto

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 last Tuesday. Manhattan prosecutors also accused Ahmed of laundering the stolen funds through a series of complex transactions, including using overseas digital-asset exchanges.

“The Southern District of New York has always been on the cutting edge of catching and prosecuting criminals who use new technologies to commit old-fashioned fraud,”

Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement posted to Twitter. “SDNY is watching and we’re determined to follow the digital fingerprints to bring fraudsters to justice.”

Williams said the charges mark the first criminal case involving an