Shakeeb Ahmed, a cybersecurity engineer who was convicted of stealing approximately $12 million in cryptocurrency, has been handed a three-year prison sentence. The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a press release. Prosecutors alleged that Ahmed hacked into two cryptocurrency exchanges to carry out the theft.
Ahmed’s lawyers, Adam Schwartz and Bradley Bondi, have yet to comment on the sentencing. When Ahmed was arrested last year, authorities described him as a “senior security engineer for an international technology company.” Although his LinkedIn profile indicated that he had previously worked at Amazon, an Amazon spokesperson clarified that he was not employed there at the time of his arrest.
One of Ahmed’s victims remains unnamed, but it is known that he hacked into Crema Finance, a Solana-based crypto exchange, in early July 2022. A few weeks later, he also targeted Nirvana Finance. In total, Ahmed stole $9 million from Crema and $3.6 million from Nirvana. The stolen funds accounted for nearly all the funds possessed by Nirvana, forcing the exchange to shut down.
Ahmed pleaded guilty to both cyberattacks. Following the hack on Crema, Ahmed attempted to return the stolen funds to the company. However, he requested a fee of $1.5 million as an unofficial finder’s fee and asked Crema not to report the incident to the authorities. Crema declined the offer, leading to Ahmed’s subsequent arrest.
While it may seem unusual, such deals have become somewhat normalized in the world of cryptocurrencies. Referred to as “white hatting,” these arrangements involve hacking a target and stealing funds without their consent, similar to what a “black hat” hacker would do. Ahmed’s case highlights the disconnect between the acceptance of these practices within the crypto industry and law enforcement’s perspective on them.
In addition to his prison sentence, Ahmed has been ordered to serve three years of supervised release. He has also been instructed to forfeit $12.4 million, including a significant quantity of cryptocurrency, and pay restitution of over $5 million to the Crypto Exchange and Nirvana, as stated in the prosecutors’ press release.
If you have any information about cryptocurrency heists and hacks, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase, and Wire @lorenzofb, or email. You can also reach out to TechCrunch via SecureDrop.