A French court has cleared two brothers of criminal charges related to February's $8.5 million Platypus Finance hack.
Mohammed M., 22, orchestrated the complex flash loan attack. He exploited a smart contract vulnerability to withdraw funds from the Avalanche-based Automated Market Maker (AMM) project. However, French judges ultimately rejected prosecutors' demands for prison sentences lasting several years.
According to Le Monde, investigators relied heavily on crypto pioneers like ZachXBT to trace the stolen cryptocurrency back to the perpetrators just a week after the Platypus attack.
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French court acquits Platypus hacker
The court ruled that Mohammed's unauthorized but publicly available use of smart contracts did not constitute illegal interference with the computer system under criminal law. Additionally, using Platypus' flawed emergency withdrawal mechanism to siphon off tokens did not meet the legal tests for fraud, according to judges.
Strangely, Mohammed claimed that as an “ethical hacker,” he always intended to return the funds. He hoped to collect a 10% white hat bounty. However, fiddling with the decryption keys permanently locked most of the stolen loot. Platypus has launched its own counter-hack to recover some stolen USD Coin (USDC) still deposited in AMM liquidity pools.
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The prosecution failure serves as a showcase for the emerging jurisdiction of DeFi law enforcement. Although fraudulent protocols can still file a claim for damages in civil court, given the novelty and global reach of decentralized networks, further clarifications are needed in the area of criminal provisions.
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