BOSTON (WHDH) – Two former MIT students are facing charges after they allegedly stole roughly $25 million in cryptocurrency within 12 seconds.
Federal authorities with the US Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service in a joint statement said brothers Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28 led a “novel scheme” to exploit the integrity of the Ethereum blockchain. Together, the pair were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Officials said Anton and James were arrested on Tuesday in Boston and New York, respectively, and were scheduled to appear in court in Boston and New York on Wednesday.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said this alleged scheme “has never before been charged.”
“But as the Indictment makes clear, no matter how sophisticated the fraud or how new the techniques used to accomplish it, the career prosecutors of this Office will be relentless in pursuing people who attack the integrity of all financial systems.”
In the unsealed indictment in the case, prosecutors said the Peraire-Bueno brothers spent several months planning, identifying a software loophole and eventually gaining access to pending Ethereum transactions.
The brothers executed their alleged crime in April 2023, according to the indictment.
After the theft, prosecutors said, the brothers ignored requests to return the funds and instead “agreed with each other to launder the proceeds.”
“As we allege, the defendants’ scheme calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question,” Williams said.
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