Shakeeb Ahmed, a cybersecurity specialist found guilty of embezzling approximately $12 million in cryptocurrency, received a three-year prison term on Friday.
The sentence was disclosed in a statement by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, following Ahmed’s alleged intrusion into two digital currency platforms and subsequent theft of around $12 million in cryptocurrency.
Adam Schwartz and Bradley Bondi, the legal representatives for Ahmed, did not provide an immediate response to the request for comments.
At the time of his arrest last year, authorities identified Ahmed as “a senior security engineer at an international technology firm.” Although his LinkedIn profile indicated a prior employment history at Amazon, an Amazon spokesperson informed TechCrunch that he was not employed there during his arrest.
While one victim’s identity remains undisclosed, Ahmed purportedly breached Crema Finance, a Solana-based crypto exchange, in early July 2022. Subsequently, he targeted Nirvana Finance, siphoning \(9 million and \)3.6 million in the respective breaches. The press release stated that the funds stolen from Nirvana Finance encompassed “virtually all the assets owned by Nirvana,” leading to the company’s closure.
Ahmed admitted guilt to orchestrating both cyberattacks.
In a unique turn of events, following the intrusion into Crema, Ahmed reached out to the company with an offer to return the pilfered funds, albeit for a fee of $1.5 million, described as an unofficial “finder’s fee,” and a condition that Crema refrains from reporting the incident to authorities. Despite the proposal, Crema rejected the deal, leading to Ahmed’s subsequent arrest.
While such arrangements are uncommon in cybersecurity, they have become somewhat normalized within the cryptocurrency sphere, often termed as “white hatting.” However, this practice involves unauthorized fund retrieval akin to actions typically associated with “black hat” hackers. Ahmed’s case underscores the disparity in perspectives between the crypto industry, which may view such transactions as part of the business landscape, and law enforcement agencies, which consider them unlawful.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ahmed was also mandated to serve three years of supervised release, forfeit \(12.4 million, including a substantial amount of cryptocurrency, and make restitution exceeding \)5 million to the affected entities, as per the prosecutors’ statement.
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