Accused $12M crypto exchange hacker pleads guilty

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that former tech firm security engineer Shakeeb Ahmed has entered a guilty plea for his involvement in the theft of more than $12 million after breaching an unspecified Solana-based decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and Nirvana Finance, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Both exchanges have been infiltrated through the exploitation of their smart contracts, with the unnamed crypto exchange compromised through the insertion of fraudulent pricing data that enabled the theft of nearly $9 million. Ahmed noted that he would return all but $1.5 million of the stolen proceeds should the unnamed exchange, which is believed to be Crema Finance, refuse to inform law enforcement regarding the incident. Meanwhile, nearly $3.6 million was reported to have been stolen by Ahmed from Nirvana Finance, which gave the hacker a $600,000 bounty that was later refused. Aside from surrendering the stolen funds, over $5 million of which will be given to victims, Ahmed could also be imprisoned for up to five years for his charges.