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$25 Million in Cryptocurrencies Allegedly Stolen by 2 Brothers in 12 Seconds
“This alleged scheme was new and had never been charged before,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI
May 15 (UPI) — The Justice Department revealed Wednesday that it has indicted two 20-year-old brothers on a string of alleged crimes for manipulating the cryptocurrency market to steal $25 million in cryptocurrencies in a 12-second period, according to reports .
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, of Boston, Massachusetts, and his brother James Peraire-Bueno, 28, of New York were arrested Monday in their respective cities and are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and criminal conspiracy to commit money laundering,
“This alleged scheme was new and had never been charged before,” said Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a news story publication.
The Peraire-Bueno brothers will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson for the District of Massachusetts and U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday afternoon.
If convicted, the brothers individually face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each crime.
“As alleged in today’s indictment, the Peraire-Bueno brothers stole $25 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency through a technologically sophisticated and cutting-edge scheme that they planned for months and executed in seconds,” the deputy attorney general said Lisa Monaco in a press release.
The Justice Department alleges that the Peraire-Bueno brothers had “meticulously” planned their “exploit” over the course of several months. THE says the prosecution their alleged crimes began as early as December 2022 and continued into this month with a series of financial transactions carried out.
Monaco indicated that Internal Revenue Service agents were instrumental in uncovering the “first-of-its-kind wire fraud and money laundering scheme” allegedly committed by the brothers.
Williams says their alleged crimes “call into question the very integrity of the blockchain.”
According to the Justice Department, the brothers had studied computer science and mathematics “at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.” The Internet connects one to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The federal government alleges that the two “used their specialized skills and education to tamper with and manipulate the protocols relied upon by millions of Ethereum users around the world. And once their plan was in place, their robbery took just 12 seconds to complete.”
Among other things, the Justice Department says it took the time to learn the trading behaviors of the victim traders whose cryptocurrency they allegedly stole, and that it “took numerous steps” to hide their identities and “lay the groundwork to hide the stolen proceeds,” which the government claimed. the claims included the creation of shell companies and the use of multiple private cryptocurrency addresses and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.
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The indictment sought the seizure of a number of JP Morgan Chase and Choice Bank accounts in their names along with other personal assets. The federal government alleges that the two performed a series of financial translations aimed at hiding not only their identities, but also the real ownership of the stolen funds.
But investigators had discovered that both brothers had digital search histories consistent with the crimes they allegedly committed, including lawyers and American extradition policies.