US authorities indict Canadian national behind $65m KyberSwap, Indexed Finance hacks

Federal prosecutors in the United States charged a Canadian national to exploit vulnerabilities in two decentralized finance protocols, alleging that he had stolen millions of cryptocurrency and tried to cover his traces.

Andia MedoDovic, a graduate in mathematics of the University of Waterloo, was charged with wire fraud, computer hacking, attempted extortion and money laundering in relation to the Kyberswap and Izero financing Exploits, the Ministry of Justice announcement February 3.

According to the costsMedoDovic has manipulated intelligent contracts on the two platforms, using misleading trades to deceive automated systems by poorly calculating key values. By exploiting these faults, he would have drained $ 48.8 million from Kyberswap in 2023 and balanced $ 16.5 million in finance indexed in 2021.

Thanks to its misleading professions, MedoDovic managed to “withdraw millions of investor funds at artificial prices,” said the indictment. This left the victims with effectively worthless investments.

The prosecutors added that Medjedovic had meticulously planned the exploits of Kyberswap over several months, maintaining a repertoire of files labeled with terms like “Kyber_kill” and “Templateexploit”.

He created a “Pool Hit list” to identify liquidity pools to strategically target and timed the attack, writing notes such as “finding time to hit!” The CEO is in Ho-chi. He even calculated the optimal time so that the attack coincides with the moment when Americans and Europeans were probably sleeping.

After the attack, the prosecutors say that Medjedovic tried to extort the developers, investors and members of DAO of Kyberswap Demanding control Protocol in exchange for the return of 50% of stolen funds.

At the same time, he worked to cover his traces. MedoDovic and a partner would have bleached the stolen crypto through cryptographic mixers And Blockchain Bridges, mixing the funds on several networks to obscure their origin. He also opened accounts in crypto exchanges using false identities, trying to liquidate his assets without increasing the red flags.

In addition, when a bridge protocol froze its transactions, MedoDovic would have paid $ 85,000 to an agent responsible for the law enforcement, which was a developer who could bypass restrictions and unlock $ 500,000 from his frozen crypto .

If he is found guilty, Medjedovic risks significant sanctions, including up to 20 years in prison for each chief of fraud in wire, the attempted extortion and money laundering, as well as 10 years for non -damage authorized to a protected computer.

The law enforcement organizations, including the Dutch national cybercrime unit and American prosecutors, continue to continue MedoDovic, which remains in freedom.

On December 20, 2023, Kyberswap announcement A cash program to compensate for users affected by hacking.

In a recent. X Post, the protocol said that the subsidy was fully distributed to 1,371 recipients. (See below.)