Two brothers have been arrested and charged with wire fraud after federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused them of stealing around $25 million worth of cryptocurrency from traders in an elaborate online heist that prosecutors described as a “first-of-its kind” scheme.
According to the unsealed indictment, the two brothers “studied mathematics and computer science at one of the most prestigious universities in the country.” They used “the specialized skills developed during their education, as well as their expertise in cryptocurrency trading” to exploit the integrity of ethereum, a decentralized blockchain network that has hosted an average of more than a million transactions per day since at least 2023, the indictment alleged.
In December 2022, they created and shared an online document with each other that laid out their plans, before engaging in test or “bait” transactions to identify three victim traders, according to prosecutors.