Two brothers have been charged for stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency within a 12-second timeframe.
According to the BBC, the brothers attended one of the most prestigious universities in the US, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before committing the biggest and the most novel heist in American history.
The Pair
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, have been accused of wire fraud and money laundering by the US Department of Justice.
The brothers orchestrated the operation for months and it took them 12 seconds to execute the process they called “the Exploit”.
They allegedly accessed pending private transactions fraudulently, altering them to obtain victims’ cryptocurrency in Ethereum traders.
Each Brother Could Face 20 Years
If the two brothers are convicted, each one of them could face up to 20 years in prison, the BBC reported.
US Attorney Damian Williams emphasized the gravity of the scheme, stating it calls into question the integrity of the blockchain technology that records cryptocurrency transactions.
