French Court Acquits 'Ethical Hackers' in $8.5M DeFi Theft from Platypus
Summary:
Two brothers who stole $8.5 million from decentralized finance platform Platypus were acquitted by a French court, arguing they were "ethical hackers." The theft, which used a flash loan attack, led to the suspension of trading operations. An investigation aided by Binance's security team linked the felony to the duo, who had planned to return the loot, keeping a 10% cut. The court's acquittal deemed the act akin to a bug bounty attempt. Meanwhile, the platform recently experienced another setback - a loss of $2.2 million in a different flash loan scheme.
In an unexpected turn of events, a French judiciary has dismissed all charges against two brothers who orchestrated a theft of $8.5 million from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, Platypus. On February 16, the culprits swiped and transferred the said amount from Platypus leveraging a flash loan attack, which prompted the platform to freeze trading activities till further notice. The initial probe led uncovering Mohammed M.'s involvement, who exploited a loophole in the code and ended up extracting all the funds using an unsecured loan.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the Binance security squad and autonomous digital currency detectives, the path of stolen funds was unveiled, ultimately pointing to the duo: Mohammed and his sibling, Benamar M. Since February 24, the brothers have been in police custody. During an October 26 judicial hearing, they confessed to their thievery but argued they were “ethical hackers”. They revealed plans of returning the embezzled money in exchange for keeping 10% cut. Seeing parallels with bounty hunting for system vulnerabilities, the court decided to absolve the duo of all legal charges. Due to the hack, an amount of 7.8 million euros in digital tokens became stranded within a crypto wallet.
In relation to the ongoing legal wrangling surrounding the breach, Platypus had another setback recently with a $2.2 million loss in a different flash loan scheme. In response to these fishy activities, Platypus temporarily suspended all transactions and assured the community of timely updates, while urging understanding and patience during this period.
As per the revelation by blockchain security agency CertiK, the October 12 breach was a three-part operation, with each strike siphoning off approx. $2.23 million, $575,000 and $450,000, respectively, across various cryptocurrencies. Fast forward to October 17, negotiations with the perpetrator helped Platypus regain 90% of the lost assets.
Published At
12/4/2023 10:48:54 AM
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