Ahmed Chakib (Shakeeb Ahmed)

Biography

2023: Admission to hacking crypto exchanges and theft of $12 million

On December 14, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced that Shakib Ahmed, a former security engineer at an international technology company, pleaded guilty to hacking two decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. As a result of these hacker attacks, the man stole more than $12 million.

According to the case file, 34-year-old Ahmed, who is a resident of New York, hacked crypto exchanges in July 2022. One of them was Nirvana Finance, while the name of the other was not disclosed. It is noted that at the time of the intrusions, the man was a senior security specialist in a certain IT company: according to TechCrunch, the hacker worked for Amazon. Ahmed took advantage of vulnerabilities in the smart contracts of both sites, which allowed him to illegally withdraw large sums.

Shakib Ahmed pleads guilty to hacking two crypto exchanges

In one episode, Ahmed stole about $9 million. Then he agreed to return the funds, with the exception of $1.5 million, if the crypto exchange does not contact law enforcement agencies in connection with the attack. In general, the attacker fraudulently received millions of dollars. After the thefts, Ahmed tried to cover his tracks by exchanging the stolen money for Monero. He also used cryptocurrency mixers, switched between various blockchains and used foreign crypto exchanges. Concerned that he would be caught, the man searched the Internet for information about ways to avoid extradition when moving to another country and how to keep the stolen cryptocurrency.

Ahmed pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud, with a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The cracker also agreed to pay compensation to his victims totaling over $5 million. The cybercriminal will be finally sentenced by a U.S. district judge on March 13, 2024.^[1]

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