Ex-Amazon engineer sentenced to 3 years in prison for $12m crypto hack

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A software engineer previously employed by Amazon, named Shakeeb Ahmed, was recently given a three-year prison term for taking advantage of smart contracts.

In 2022, hacks led to the loss of more than $12 million worth of various cryptocurrencies. This marked the initial sentencing for a cybercrime targeting smart contracts in court history.

In December 2023, Ahmed confessed to deceitfully altering smart contracts by inputting false pricing information. As a result, he earned around $12 million in unmerited gains, which he then took as cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors didn’t mention one of the implicated platforms in their disclosure, but clues in the indictment point to Crema Finance being that platform. The other identified platform was Nirvana Finance, which shut down post-hack incident in July 2022.

Prior to the event, Ahmed was in charge of Amazon’s bug bounty initiative, where he discovered and resolved vulnerabilities in their software’s security. The defense, emphasizing the uniqueness of this case involving smart contract hacking, suggested a sentence of four years in prison.

Ahmed’s helpful attitude and return of most of the misappropriated funds were recognized by them, yet they stressed the importance of imprisoning him as a warning and to highlight the seriousness of his crimes.

Instead of imprisonment, Ahmed’s defense advocated for probation. They presented his deteriorating mental health during the hacking incidents and the undisturbed nature of the stolen funds as compelling reasons. Ahmed, originally from Saudi Arabia, asked for leniency through his legal team based on these mitigating circumstances.

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2024-04-12 22:27