- A senior security engineer has admitted in court that he hacked the Nirvana protocol and another unnamed DEX
- The engineer was arrested in July after exploiting a vulnerability in the DEX’s smart contract
- The exploit siphoned roughly $9 million from the decentralized exchange
Shakeeb Ahmed, a senior security engineer with an unnamed international tech company, has pleaded guilty to hacking Nirvana Finance and another unnamed decentralized exchange (DEX). Ahmed was arrested in July after siphoning roughly $9 million from the DEX by exploiting a deficiency in the exchange’s smart contract. The exchange involved law enforcement agencies despite the engineer returning an agreed amount of the funds, something that’s uncommon in the blockchain world.
Hacker to Return Over $13 Million
According to a statement by the Southern District Court of New York, Ahmed was accused of one count of computer fraud in connection with the hack of the two crypto projects. The court disclosed that he also agreed to return more than 13 million in crypto that he acquired through fraudulent avenues.
United States Attorney Damian Williams said that Ahmed’s conviction is the first involving crypto exchange hacks, adding that the software engineer “tried to cover his tracks” by exchanging the stolen crypto for privacy-focused virtual currency Monero (XMR) and using non-U.S. crypto exchanges.
Up to Five Years in Prison
The court disclosed that Ahmed is skilled in, among other things, “reverse engineering smart contracts […]” a skill he used to exploit weaknesses in the two platforms’ smart contracts. Ahmed, scheduled to be sentenced in March 2024, faces up to five years in prison.
The software engineer’s guilty plea comes a few days after a French court cleared two hackers of all criminal charges after they convinced the court they were white hat hackers and were hunting for a bounty.
With Ahmed pleading guilty, it’s to be seen how many years he’ll spend in prison.
