Cybersecurity
Ex-Amazon Engineer Gets Three Years for Hacking DeFi Platforms
- Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced Friday for hacking smart contracts
- Ahmed admitted to stealing $12 million from two platforms
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of four years in prison for what they said was a “first-of-its-kind” conviction for hacking smart contracts.
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A former Amazon.com software engineer who admitted to stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrency by hacking two decentralized finance platforms was ordered to spend three years behind bars.
Shakeeb Ahmed, 34, was sentenced Friday by US District Judge Victor Marrero on Friday. Ahmed pleaded guilty in December to taking advantage of flaws in the DeFi platforms’ so-called smart contracts to insert fake pricing data, generating about $12 million of inflated and unearned profits that he was able to withdraw in cryptocurrency.