These brothers studied at one of the most prestigious universities: they have just been arrested for stealing cryptocurrencies

Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, are spending their second night behind bars. The brothers, who studied at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), were arrested yesterday in Boston and Neva York, respectively, after allegedly stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.

The United States Department of Justice provides some details in this regard. According to a statement, the defendants set up a novel plan to violate the integrity of the Ethereum blockchain and thus obtain the equivalent of $25 million in digital assets. The initial crime, they explain, would have taken place in 12 seconds.

When knowledge is used to steal

The investigation suggests that the brothers planned the hit months in advance. Furthermore, from the first moment they took measures to hide their identities in order to avoid being tracked by the authorities. To achieve this, they carefully studied how to manipulate Ethereum’s validation protocols.

There are not many details of the scheme, but prosecutors say the attackers used trading bots to gain access to private transactions and then steal cryptocurrency. All this, acting through shell companies and cryptocurrency exchanges with high privacy for users.

The maneuvers were detected thanks to the work of the Cyber ​​Unit of the IRS-CI of New York and other government actors. Now the brothers face each other a variety of positionsspecifically charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Bloomberg notes Anton graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics in February. James, for his part, earned a master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical sciences in 2021. If convicted, the brothers face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.

Images | Art Rachen | Alec Favale | traxer

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